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Aim and Scope

Aims and Scope

Language and Diaspora Transmission (LDT)

Aims

The primary aim of Language and Diaspora Transmission (LDT) is to advance the understanding of linguistic practices in diasporic settings. Specifically, the journal seeks to:

  • Promote context-sensitive research on language maintenance, shift, and intergenerational transmission.
  • Bridge linguistic theory with pressing societal issues such as educational equity, cultural sustainability, and social justice for migrant communities.
  • Provide a global academic platform for voices, data, and linguistic contexts that are often underrepresented in mainstream applied linguistics and sociolinguistic journals.

Scope

LDT welcomes original research articles, comprehensive review articles, and critical case studies. The journal covers, but is not limited to, the following thematic areas:

  • Intergenerational Language Transmission & Family Language Policy (FLP): Studies on how heritage languages are passed down within families, the role of parents and grandparents, and the impact of domestic language ideologies on child language acquisition.
  • Language Maintenance and Shift: Macro- and micro-sociolinguistic analyses of the factors driving language preservation or attrition in diaspora communities, including the role of community institutions, religious organizations, and weekend schools.
  • Identity, Ideology, and Power: Research exploring how diasporic language practices construct, negotiate, or challenge notions of belonging, ethnic identity, and transnational citizenship.
  • Pedagogy and Heritage Language Education: Empirical studies on curriculum development, teaching methodologies, teacher identity, and assessment in bilingual, multilingual, and heritage language educational contexts.
  • Digital Diaspora and Mediated Communication: Analyses of how digital platforms, social media, and AI-mediated communication facilitate or hinder transnational language practices and virtual community building among diaspora youth.
  • Pragmatics and Discourse in Diaspora: Investigations into cross-cultural politeness, code-switching, translanguaging, and discourse strategies used by diaspora speakers in navigating multiple linguistic and cultural norms.
  • Language Policy and Planning (LPP): Critical evaluations of national, regional, or institutional language policies affecting migrant and diaspora populations, including linguistic human rights and minority language protection.

Methodological Approaches

LDT encourages methodological diversity and rigor. We welcome submissions employing qualitative approaches (e.g., ethnography, narrative inquiry, critical discourse analysis, multimodal analysis), quantitative approaches (e.g., corpus linguistics, psycholinguistic experiments, large-scale sociolinguistic surveys), and mixed-methods designs that provide a holistic view of complex diasporic language phenomena.