JOURNAL OF SCIENCE OF HNUE DOI: 10.18173/2354-1067.

2016-0104
Social Sci., 2016, Vol. 61, No. 12, pp. 36-47
This paper is available online at http://stdb.hnue.edu.vn

[THE] NORTHERN [DIALECT] SOUNDS FOREIGN TO ME:

VIETNAMESE HERITAGE SPEAKERS INVESTMENT AND IDENTITIES

Nguyen Thi Thu Ha

Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education

Abstract. The trends of globalization and transnationalism have drawn researchers

attention to the issues of heritage speakers as well as their investment and identities.
Speakers of Spanish, Chinese, Korean are thoroughly studied while not much
research has been done in the realm of Vietnamese heritage speakers and their
dialects. This study investigates Vietnamese heritage speakers investment and
identities in relation to the Vietnamese dialects they are exposed to. The findings
suggest that the participants constructed and reconstructed different identities and
their levels of investment in language learning varied due to their experience with
the social worlds.
Keywords: The Northern dialect, sounds foreign, Vietnamese heritage speakers,
investment, identities.

1. Introduction
Language teaching and learning is now closely linked to globalization and speakers
from diasporas, heritage speakers (HSs) in particular, become a topic that attracts a
wealth of research in the field of sociolinguistics [7, 1]. While the issue of identities and
investment of Spanish, Korean and Chinese HSs has been widely studied [4, 12,13, 14]
research on Vietnamese heritage speakers is still limited. As understanding the learners,
their investment and their identities is an essential part of heritage language (HL) teaching,
researching Vietnamese HSs will expand our subject knowledge as well as enrich the
existing literature on HSs in general. This research examines the investment and identities
of the Vietnamese HSs at a university in the US Pacific in relation to the dialects they are
exposed to. Using grounded theory, the study hopes to shed light on the HSs struggle in
claiming identities and how it manifests in their language investment in their learning of
the Vietnamese language as identities and investment directly influence HSs relationship
to the target language [11].

Received date: 7/8/2016. Published date: 25/10/2016.

Contact: Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, e-mail: hanguyen.hnue@gmail.com

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2. Content
2.1. Background to the study
Geographically and dialectically, Vietnam can be divided into three major regions:
the North, the Central and the South. Vietnamese, despite not being the only language
spoken, is the official language of the nation. The three main dialects in Vietnam feature
differences in vocabulary and pronunciation [8; 266].
After 1975, many Vietnamese people sought refuge in other countries, the USA
included. They started a new life in a whole new country whose language they did not
speak. In the US, these immigrants often lived in Vietnamese communities and most
of them did not speak any English. Many families have the children speak Vietnamese
as their home language; others have the children speak both Vietnamese and English
at home (usually to English-speaking family members). However, there are also cases
where parents decide not to teach Vietnamese to their children due to the perceived
socioeconomic and academic benefits that people can get if they speak only English.
The participants in my study had Vietnamese parents and they all spoke Vietnamese
at home: Janes family came from Hue with Central dialect (Hue dialect) and two others
(Tony and Ellie) had Southern dialect (i.e., Sai Gon dialect).
At the university chosen, students are required to complete four semesters of foreign
language in order to graduate. The Vietnamese Program here offered four courses for
students: VIET101 and VIET201 in the Fall and VIET102 and VIET202 in the Spring.
Some students can be granted permission to start with VIET 102, VIET201 or VIET202
without taking the lower-level courses. The exemption is decided on the basis of a
placement test. Jane was exempted from VIET101 so she only took three Vietnamese
classes (VIET102, VIET201 and VIET202) at university while Ellie and Tony took all
four courses.
The dialect used for class instruction was the Vietnamese Northern dialect. The
instructors included a native Vietnamese female lecturer, an American professor and a
Vietnamese teaching assistant, all of whom spoke the Northern dialect. The textbook used
was Elementary Vietnamese [10] with all conversations recorded in the Northern dialect.
In an informal discussion, the coordinator of the Vietnamese Program in this university
shared that he chose Northern dialect in teaching because it was the standard language
heard on TV, radio, newspapers, etc. Also, songs (except for regional folk music) in
Vietnamese are sung in Northern dialect, regardless of the singers dialects. The difference
between the dialects at home and in class gives rise to this study. I will examine the HSs
investment in learning Vietnamese as well as how their investment was influenced by
different Vietnamese dialects they came in contact with. Also, I want to find out how they
constructed and reconstructed their identities in relation to these dialects.
2.2. Literature review
First and foremost, it is important to define the notion of HSs. There is no single
definition of HSs and it has mostly been associated with the speakers proficiency or

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their ethnic group. A heritage speaker is an early bilingual who grew up hearing and
speaking the heritage language (L1) and the majority language (L2) either simultaneously
or sequentially in early childhood (that is, roughly up to age 5) but whose L2 became their
primary language at some point during childhood (typically after the onset of schooling)
[1; 6]. This paper adopts the recent view on HSs as proposed by Leeman [9;103]:
Either all individuals with an ancestral or family tie to the language even if they have
extremely limited or no proficiency in the language or just those who have some
productive and/or receptive ability.
As the role of HL education is becoming pivotal in the context of globalization, the
issue of HSs and their identities emerges as a subject of debate among scholars. Many
argue that HSs identity issue is far more complex than just the relation between ones
ethnicity and language since it is how a person understands his or her relationship to
the world, how that relationship is structured across time and space, and how the person
understands possibilities for the future [5; 36]. Identity, in other words, is not fixed; it is
fluid and subject to constant changes within peoples social worlds. It is also constructed
and reconstructed all the time based on individuals perception of themselves and their
images as seen by other members in the community [9].
HSs investment and their identities have been the focus of research recently.
Blackledge and Creese found that Bengali HSs identities are directly related to
history, language ideologies and can be imposed on them yet negotiated by them via
linguistic resources [2]. Leeman (2015) reviewed studies on HSs identities in the U.S
in survey-based research and ethnographic research and linked the issue to education
[9]. Other authors investigated the Chinese HSs identities and how their identities were
affected by the learners home dialects. The findings suggested that the HSs Chinese
identities were maintained but they were also shifted during their struggle when there
exists the gap between the instruction dialect and their home dialect [13]. The studies
mentioned, however, are on HSs of other languages rather than those of Vietnamese.
Not until recently have there been more studies on Vietnamese HSs. Do (2015)
investigated how second generation Vietnamese Americans negotiated their identities in
their communities of practice (CoPs). He found that language competence was not the
only factor deciding the HSs participation or their perceived legitimacy in using the HL in
their communities. He indicated that the participants, denied membership by old-timers
due to their limited proficiency, used imagined communities as a way to connect to and
identify themselves with the heritage culture. Additionally, Do examined how these HSs
negotiated their identities as language brokers (doing the translation and interpretation for
the family) when they encountered difficulties as their HL proficiency was not sufficient
for the tasks [6].
The limited amount of research on Vietnamese HSs implies the need for additional
research. An understanding of Vietnamese HSs identities and investment will enable
educators to better support the heritage learners and therefore positively contribute to
HSs language and culture maintenance.

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2.3. Methodology
The participants in this study consist of three people aged 22. To ensure their
confidentiality, they were given pseudonyms which are Tony, Ellie, and Jane. The
research data were collected when they were in their fourth semester learning Vietnamese
(VIET202) at a university in the USA.
Tony is a 22-year-old male student who majors in Law. After 1975, his parents went
to the US and he was born on a Pacific island. Tony took four Vietnamese courses over two
years at college because he wanted to talk to his family. Previously, he had only spoken
Vietnamese at home but mostly in phrases or simple sentences such as C g n khng
m? (What is there to eat, Mom?), th vin (Im at the library.) or Gi con v (Now
Im coming home). As Tony stated, he could not explain more complicated things and
usually had to shorten what he wanted to say.
Ellie is 22-year-old female born in California. She had spoken Vietnamese fluently
before taking classes at university. At home, she always talked to her grandmother in
Vietnamese. With her parents, she used Vietnamese with occasional code-switching to
English.
Jane is a 22-year-old female born in Hawaii. Her family was originally from Hue.
Her dad had come to the US as a refugee before her family reunited in New Orleans four
years later and then moved to Hawaii. At home, she used Vietnamese (Hue dialect) with
her mom and both Vietnamese and English with her dad.
2.4. Data Collection
The data were collected from a series of in-depth interviews with the participants
(2-3 sessions/each), which were then transcribed and analyzed. Each interview session
lasted 15-30 minutes. I conducted the interviews in form of small talks in which I actively
engaged in the participants stories to encourage them to elaborate with more details. I
also chose to speak English to the interviewees not only to make them feel comfortable
to talk but also to minimize the potential influence of my dialect. In the interviews, I
was able to use my linguistic resource in Vietnamese to facilitate the participants talks.
I also reminded the participants that they did not need to answer questions if they felt
uncomfortable. Throughout the interviews, however, the participants were all willing to
talk about issues I asked.
2.5. Data Analysis
As HSs and their identities are a complicated issue [9], grounded theory is chosen
as the framework for data analysis as it allows for flexible data collection and data
treatment [3].
I followed the procedures of conducting grounded theory by Charmaz [3] and
started with conducting then transcribing the first interviews. I then did line-by-line
coding to obtain the initial codes before grouping similar codes into categories of
focused coding, which helped me to decide what to ask in the next interview with the

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participants. With the second interview transcribed, I repeated line-by-line coding and
focused coding. These focused codes then underwent axial coding where the focused
codes were compared, synthesized and related to dialect issue.
2.6. Findings
2.6.1. Learners investment
As revealed in the interview, the participants came to VIET202 with different levels
of linguistic and cultural capital. Also, their immediate families had a crucial impact on
their investment in learning the HL.
Although all three participants could speak Vietnamese before taking classes at the
university, Jane and Ellie were fluent and they used Vietnamese as their home language.
Jane also went to Sunday school ? so she had known how to read and write before enrolling
the Vietnamese courses. Likewise, Ellie always used Vietnamese to talk to her grandma
who did not speak English. With her mom and dad, she code-switched based on what
language they used with her. Tony, on the other hand, spoke Vietnamese at home as
young as he could remember but for him, his language was simple and butchered.
He had limited exposure as he did not have a community outside of the family (relatives or
friends) and he used some simple phrases or sentences over and over to his parents. Yet,
he considered himself holding a lot of Vietnamese values. Later in the interview, Tony
elaborated his idea of Vietnamese values as follows:
My family [. . . ] doesnt want to hug, they dont like to say congratulations, just keep
working hard in life and you know just make money and find. . . you know, support the
family. And thats where I hold my values because I have no time for crying, I have no
time for stressing [. . . ] I just make sure I do what I have to without investing emotions,
without stressing, without crying, without getting mad about all this stuff. In that sense,
I think I hold Vietnamese values.
In the interviews, Tony repeatedly mentioned his wish to learn Vietnamese to
talk to his family, with no dialect preferences. As his family was the only resource
of language exposure he had outside of class, they exerted negative influences on his
language investment. Tony recalled asking his father the Vietnamese word for snail,
which he pronounced incorrectly but was not corrected by his dad. Later he told his mom
the word, she did not understand and she told him he had the wrong pronunciation. Tony
realized his dads disinterest in teaching or reinforcing his Vietnamese:
He just shows like he doesnt want to, like, reinforce my Vietnamese, he just takes it as it
is. Its horrible, you know, Im not gonna dig deep and correct you kind of thing. If I
say something wrong he wouldnt correct, yeah, unless its very bad.
Tony also cited other examples when he asked his parents about their Buddhist
prayer rituals and they told him not to bother. Or another time when he told his dad (in
Vietnamese) that he needed to leave early due to an emergency at work; his dad did not
understand but he pretended he did.

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In Tonys case, the HS expressed the eagerness to learn both Vietnamese language
and culture to communicate more with his parents but his dad showed the lack of
enthusiasm for language transmission and reinforcement. By his Im not gonna dig deep
and correct you attitude as perceived by Tony, he exerted the power of an insider and
considered Tony an outsider - the American in the family. The failure to be included in
Vietnamese conversations led to Tonys frustration and abandonment of his effort to be a
Vietnamese: I dont identify myself with it [Vietnamese culture]. The rejection led to
Tonys resistance to invest in using the language to communicate:
I wanna learn but I dont want to speak it because Im not there yet kind of thing. It just
reminds me that my Vietnamese is not good, just makes me shy away from everything. I
dont know why.
With further probing, it was found that being there to Tony meant having good
pronunciation. However, the failure in seeking inclusion resulted in his lack of investment
in language learning. He decided not to take any other Vietnamese classes after fulfilling
the degree requirement because it was not his priority and he felt the lack of exposure
made it impossible for him to improve his language competence.
In Janes case, she started with considerable knowledge of Vietnamese as her family
encouraged her to retain the Vietnamese language and culture:
In the beginning, they were more focused on their children getting an American
education. Consider what they went through in the War time. . . so I guess they felt that
it was beneficial for us to get as much as we can from America so I guess they were not
that focused on Vietnamese but as we got older I think that they did want us to go back
to our culture and language. They brought us back to Vietnam for vacation and then go
back here and then I think thats why they kept us in Sunday school so much because
they knew that coming here well get a lot of American influence [. . . ] so they want us
to balance between giving us that opportunity but still have a tie back to our culture. As
I grow older, I think that they felt that were losing part of our culture so my dad got
more strict about us learning Vietnamese and learning about our religion [Buddhism].
It can be seen, Janes parents wanted their children to be educated and succeed in
the US without losing their Vietnamese values (i.e: language, culture and religion). This
affected Janes investment in learning the HL: she would go to Sunday school until the age
of 14-15, she would read Buddhism books to her dad as a way of practising the language
and she would talk to her relatives in Vietnamese when she came to visit them.
She also claimed that going to class just enhance[d] her knowledge. In her stories,
she remembered how she was a bad child and how she was against learning the language
at her Sunday school as the teacher was mean, which influenced her attitude towards
taking Vietnamese at college at first:
I started with 102 first, I skipped 101 and in 102 I felt like I didnt really care much about
102 because I think that because of my knowledge in my Sunday school and I already

41
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had that feeling like Urggg, I dont want to learn this and it was already a bad
experience so then when I came here and started to take 102, I was like Urggg, again. . .
Initially, Jane was reluctant to learn Vietnamese due to her negative experience
at Sunday school (i.e: Urggg, I dont want to learn this and Urgggg, again. . . ). The
previous bad experience seemed to prevent her from investing in learning Vietnamese
at college. However, Janes attitudes changed when she liked the teacher and when she
realized the benefit of learning.
But after co Han taught us, I really liked her so I think she made a... she made an effect
on
me wanting to learn more about Vietnamese and then at my office, too. Our patients are
mostly Vietnamese and I learnt that when I invested more time in 102 then I can talk to
those patients more and then I took 201 now.
At that time, Jane worked at a clinic where she met many Vietnamese Northerners
who did not speak much English. She used the Northern dialect learnt in class to talk to
these customers and to establish rapport with them.
Speaking to them, like, in their dialect make me want to learn Vietnamese in that dialect
better so when I go to my profession I can use that dialect with my clients because I feel
they speak to you more when you speak their dialect.
In other words, Jane projected herself as a Northerner when she talked to the clients
as she perceived using the Northern dialect would grant her membership to clients CoP.
Customers, thus, became an alternative investment to her language learning.
Ellie, although unable to read and write in Vietnamese before taking classes, was
a fluent Vietnamese speaker. She was also familiar with cultural practices of a typical
Vietnamese family:
I think a good amount compared to my other friends with different ethnicity. For example,
at home we still do the New Year tradition and t nhang [lighting the incense] and stuff
with the incense. I dont know just like the little things you normally see in Vietnam you
cannot see at home with the mix of American culture.
In this extract, Ellie saw herself as being exposed to a good amount of Vietnamese
culture. She also set herself apart by comparing her family with other families where
American culture was present. Later, she cited examples of how the Vietnamese values
could be observed in her family from the food she ate, the way her family communicated
to the fact that they had a close family tie:
I would say like a lot of like from food to just like the way we like eat or the way like we
communicate with each other is still kind of like the Vietnamese tradition, like we still
try to keep the family close. And regardless of how old you are, youll never like kicked
out of the house, whereas here its like if youre 18, you have to find your own place to
stay or something. Like thats still the Vietnamese tradition like keeping it together, I

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guess.
Ellies investment in learning can be traced back to the fact that she already had a
certain level of linguistic capital and she did not have to start from scratch. She also
had in mind the goals of learning Vietnamese, which was communicating with potential
clients:
[. . . ] I already know how to speak but because I want to go into law, I thought it will be
beneficial if I know how to read and write. And theres a language that is required, I
figured I would take Vietnamese and better my speaking and knowledge about it. [. . . ]
If I have a client speaking Vietnamese or if Im going to focus on business and
businesspeople happen to be Vietnamese. I can communicate with them better. . . so I feel
like that would help. . . theyll bond with me a little more if we understand each other.
Moreover, Ellie invested in learning partly because of her positive feelings towards
the Northern dialect. She perceived it as understandable, different and new:
I prefer the Northern dialect because it is still understandable its not like from a different
language. . . so its still the same concept so its easy for me, I guess. There are certain
words I hear and I was like oh, thats what I mean, I always speak that language. So I
guess I like the Northern. [. . . ] I dont know its just different, I want to learn something
new.
To conclude, the participants had different capitals to bring to class. Often, their
investment depended largely on their interpersonal relations (with family, teachers and
clients). With different levels of exposure to the language, the participants also set
different goals with their learning, aiming to be part of the imagined communities ranging
from family to customers at work. Also, the social worlds can directly or indirectly
encourage or discourage learners investment in language learning so their investments
varied accordingly.
2.6.2. Learners identities in relation to dialects
a. Language, dialect and future investment
The findings show that the participants identified themselves differently within
their communities. They associated themselves with their dialects but also claimed other
identities when communicating to different communities.
They had different opinions regarding the so-called standard dialect: Tony and
Ellie thought the Northern dialect was standard because it was used widely on the news
and TV while the Southern was standard for Jane as she often heard it on TV). However,
all the three participants encountered instances when they could see the relative power of
the Northern dialect over other dialects. For example, Ellie was required to pronounce a
word correctly in the Northern dialect or Jane was ridiculed when she spoke Northern to
her sister-in-law but failed to be understood.
Jane, Tony and Ellie considered their Vietnamese as broken, butchered or
improper due to their lack of grammar competence. Therefore, they did not identify

43
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themselves as native speakers of Vietnamese. As Tony said:

Even though I want to identify myself as Vietnamese, Im just so invested in English. It
doesnt feel natural to me in Vietnamese language. So, in that sense, I associate myself
as American, unfortunately.
Similarly, Jane, when asked if she considered herself a native speaker of
Vietnamese, answered yes and no. She explained that her Vietnamese was not
always grammatically accurate and she often felt comfortable to be corrected by the
northern-dialect instructors in class.
At work, however, Jane and Ellie realized the advantages of using the Northern
dialect. For them, learning Vietnamese was their investment in their current and/or
prospective jobs. They believed the language competence earned in the Vietnamese
classes would be useful when they started work.
At work, with Vietnamese clients, Jane projected herself as a Northerner claiming
that this identity helped her to build rapport with patients:
[...] when I speak to the patient, I use the one we use in class because most of them are
northerners, they speak the northern dialect. [. . . ] I feel they speak to you more when
you speak their dialect.
In the interview, Ellie talked about her intention to work for a business that
may involve both American and Vietnamese customers. Thus, learning the proper
Vietnamese and the proper way of speaking in the Northern dialect was her investment
for future successful business with an imagined community of Vietnamese speakers.
As for Tony, after myriad attempts to claim membership in his Vietnamese family
without positive outcomes, he decided he could never fully identify as a Vietnamese due
to his limited linguistic resources and exposure. This explains why he identified more as
an American and he did not prioritize learning Vietnamese in the future.
b. Dialect and shame
The complicated relationship between identities and dialects manifested in Janes
case. Her family came from Hue so she grew up speaking the Central dialect. Jane strongly
identified with it. She perceived her dialect as legitimate, as something familiar and
comprehensible. She expressed the desire to be instructed in her dialect as the Northern
dialect sounded foreign and strange to her. However, she felt ashamed of her Central
dialect when she started VIET102 and all her classmates had the Southern accent. This
shame made her conform and switch to the Southern dialect so that she would not be
an odd ball:
I really want to speak my dialect but. . . then I feel a little ashamed because everybody
speaks a different dialect. I dont know but people may find a little bit strange. Everybody
else is just like speaking Southern Vietnamese so I just conformed with them. I dont
wanna be an odd ball.
As she spoke Hue dialect at home, the Southern dialect in class and the Northern at

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work, she sometimes switched between dialects. She had a sister-in-law who was from the
North of Vietnam so she recalled trying to talk to her sister-in-law in the northern dialect
and ended up feeling embarrassed:
My sister-in-law is a northern dialect speaker and I speak Hue dialect. When she came, I
spoke to her in northern Vietnam and she was just like what did you just say? she was
born in Vietnam and when I talk to her I kind of switch over, its kind of embarrassing.
Due to the regional differences in pronunciation, the tone marks in the Northern
dialect are more distinctive while the distinction in the Southern and Central dialect is
usually undetectable for du hi (?), du ng () and du sc (). In order to raise students
awareness of this issue, the instructor of the Vietnamese courses often put more emphasis
on correcting their pronunciation. Ellie, however, experienced shame as she could not
pronounce certain words due to the dialect difference.
I feel like okay now Im learning to speak correctly or the proper way of talking in the
Northern dialect. Its okay, I think, thats a good thing. But its kinda get irritating
sometimes thay Sam like nitpicked, only when you nitpick because Im still used to
speaking the southern way so when we cant pronounce certain things because we just
so used to it.
Tony had similar experience when he tried to use a word learnt in class to inform
his family of his schedule. He could not get his message understood, making his family
feel offended:
I forgot recently I used the word and they didnt know what I was saying. Oh, hi tho,
you know, conference, yeah I tried to tell them I was going to a conference. what is
hi tho? They felt more offended and they said we dont understand you!. They told
me that.
He also added that this happened many times and he felt disheartening, which
resulted in his reluctance to communicate in Vietnamese to avoid the shame of feeling
incompetent. In summary, as these HSs were exposed to different dialects in different
settings, they adopted different identities with their use of dialects, mostly to create a
membership within various communities. These identities were constructed with their
choice of a particular dialect and sometimes reconstructed due to the responses from
people they talked to.

3. Conclusion
This paper has investigated the Vietnamese HSs investment and identities in
relation to the dialects they were exposed to. The findings, in line with results for
Japanese and Chinese HSs [7&9], have shown that the participants had different levels
of investment, which influenced and were influenced by the identities that these HSs
constructed and reconstructed in communication. Furthermore, certain aspects of their
investment and identities were found to be connected to the dialects that they used or were
exposed to. Their investment and identities also varied depending on their interpersonal

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relations to the communities of which they were members as well as the perceived benefits
that they could get from language learning. It is, therefore, essential for educators to
bear in mind the dialect difference as well as its connection to learners investment and
identities so as to better support the HSs in mastering the language and embracing their
identities.
Although the number of participants was small and the findings might not imply
generalization, the study has contributed to the existing literature about HSs, especially
Vietnamese HSs, who play such an important role in connecting their parent generation
with the society [6]. Within the constraint of this research, it is impossible to provide a
solid theory regarding Vietnamese HSs characteristics, identities, investment as well as
factors affect their learning of the HL. It is therefore pivotal for researchers to thoroughly
investigate the Vietnamese HSs in the wider discourses between them and the social
worlds in order to facilitate their maintenance of heritage language and culture.
Note: The participants in the research were renamed and all the names they
mentioned were replaced by pseudonyms. The words in square brackets were added by
the researcher to provide more details.

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