1st Edition

Polish as a Heritage Language Around the World Selected Diaspora Communities

Edited By Piotr Romanowski, Anna Seretny Copyright 2025
    288 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Polish as a Heritage Language Around the World provides a timely insight into Polish diaspora communities around the world and their endeavours in heritage language maintenance and education.

     

    This edited collection depicts and analyses the unique challenges associated with the intergenerational transmission of Polish as a language that has not had high visibility and status in the surrounding society. Chapters within the volume examine how these circumstances impact the maintenance of the heritage language and affect the capacity to support biliteracy development among younger generations of speakers.

     

    Offering an overview of key concepts and theoretical issues, practical pedagogical guidance, and field-advancing suggestions for further research, Polish as a Heritage Language Around the World will be of interest to researchers and instructors of Polish around the world as well as those interested in second language acquisition and heritage language studies.

    Foreword

    Władysław Miodunka

     

    Introduction: The Polish Language Scattered All Over the Globe

    Piotr Romanowski and Anna Seretny

     

    PART I: EUROPE

    Chapter 1. Changing Faces of the Polish Diaspora in the United Kingdom

    Edyta Nowosielska

     

    Chapter 2. A Differentiated Picture of Polish in Germany

    Hanna Pułaczewska

     

    Chapter 3. The Polish Population and its Language in Sweden

    Dorota Lubińska

     

    Chapter 4. Polish Heritage Speakers in Norway: Attitudes, Use and Maintenance

    Piotr Garbacz and Toril Opsahl

     

    Chapter 5. Multilingualism of the Polish Minority in Ukraine

    Helena Krasowska

     

    PART II: THE AMERICAS

    Chapter 6. Poles and Their Language in the US “Melting Pot”: how Polish is preserved and/or lost in Chicago

    Izolda Wolski-Moskoff

     

    Chapter 7. The Polish Language and Culture Maintenance in Canada “Scented with Resin”

    Magda Stroińska and Joanna Lustański

     

    Chapter 8. “We have to respect the language people speak” – Polish heritage language and its speakers in Brazil

    Alicja Goczyła Fereirra

     

    Chapter 9. The Status of the Polish Language in the Polish Community of Argentina: A Historical and Contemporary Perspective

    Adrianna Seniów

     

    PART III: OTHER CONTINENTS

    Chapter 10. The Presence of the Polish Language in the Polish Diaspora Communities of North Africa: Focusing on The Aspects of Education

    Jacek Knopek

     

    Chapter 11. The Polish Diaspora in the Republic of South Africa: The Case of Polish as a Heritage Language

    Arkadiusz Żukowski

     

    Chapter 12. Maintenance of Heritage Language and Culture in the Polish Diaspora Communities in Australia

    Ewa Lipińska

     

    Bringing It All Together: The Maintenance of the Polish Language Outside of Poland

    Piotr Romanowski and Anna Seretny

    Biography

    Piotr Romanowski holds a PhD and a post-doctoral degree in linguistics. He is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Applied Linguistics, the University of Warsaw, Poland. His academic interests sit at the intersection of multilingual education and sociolinguistics. He is chief editor of Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices and the book series Language Learning and Multilingualism. He is the founding member of MultiLingNet. In the academic year 2022/23 he was a Research Fellow at University College London.

     

    Anna Seretny is an applied linguists and Professor at the Polish Faculty, the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. She has an extensive record of research and publications on vocabulary learning in Polish as a foreign and heritage language. Her major academic interests are language learning and teaching, heritage language maintenance and education.