The Acquisition of Kosraean and English: A Diglossic Community at a Crossroads

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the child language acquisition of Kosraean (ISO 639-3 kos) and English (ISO 639-3 eng) on the island of Kosrae of the Federated States of Micronesia, with the aim of assessing the current vitality status of Kosraean and its strength compared to English. The concerns raised by the community regarding child proficiency in both languages as well as the fact that the native language, Kosraean, is evaluated as safe on the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale, but threatened on the Language Endangerment Index, motivates this research. A leading indicator of possible language attrition is whether children are acquiring that language, therefore this dissertation assesses intergenerational transmission in each language, and determines whether English is influencing Kosraean acquisition. By utilizing the foundations of the Tool for Intergenerational Transmission Assessment, I was able to measure language attitudes, and lexical and grammatical acquisition. The results ultimately show that Kosraean is the dominant language in the community, but there are signs that English is influencing language use at all levels tested. In reevaluating Kosraean using the language scales with the new primary data, the language should be considered vulnerable and not threatened or safe as previously stated. The findings of this dissertation are intended to support the Kosraean community in their endeavors to enact thoughtful and effective bilingual language policies. Furthermore, this dissertation fills a gap in linguistic research since Kosraean is an understudied language, and I hope it can serve the broader linguistic needs of progressing the methods used to evaluate languages and approaches for the assessment of intergenerational transmission.