Dialect Change in 'Returning' Third Culture Kids

Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are defined as people who have grown up outside of their parents’ and their host countries’ cultures in an interstitial 'third' culture (Useem & Downie 1976: 103). Children who are born as TCKs develop their first dialect in superdiverse environments in which the linguistic feature pool is constantly shifting due to the temporary nature of expatriate residences. When TCKs 'return' to their parents' home country, the dialect in their new environment is their heritage dialect. To date, no research has investigated how dialect acquisition in this scenario differs from the traditional second dialect acquisition (SDA) experience of moving from one stable linguistic environment to a new one. The current study attempts to address this knowledge gap by looking closely at the dialect changes of eight TCKs who moved to New Zealand after growing up in Hong Kong or Singapore.

The TCKs in this study moved between 5 and 11 years old. Six of them had at least one New Zealand English (NZE)-speaking parent and the other two did not. Five of the participants were available for pre-move recordings and all participants were recorded at approximately one month, six months and three years after they moved.

In their pre-move recordings, the TCKs' use of lexical, phonetic and phonological features demonstrated influence from Hong Kong English, Singapore English, New Zealand English, Standard Southern British English and General American English. The TCKs presented with highly individualised inventories of features reflecting their interstitial identities.

After the TCKs moved to New Zealand, they demonstrated varying acquisition of lexical, phonetic and phonological features of NZE. SDA studies have shown that the speed, sequence and completeness of acquisition are influenced by personal factors such as the age of the child when they move and factors related to the variable, such as the linguistic complexity of the change. These were relevant in the current study and new factors were identified. Previous exposure to NZE through their parents’ variety and previous use of NZE facilitated acquisition of NZE features. This unsurprising result has not been previously documented. Furthermore, the TCKs who consistently expressed a sense of belonging to places other than New Zealand acquired notably fewer features of NZE than would be predicted by age and complexity alone.

This relatively small study of eight participants is the first step towards documenting the linguistic features of TCKs in Hong Kong and Singapore and during re-entry. This uniquely diverse population has been understudied in linguistic literature yet the results from the current study suggest they make a valuable contribution to understanding the factors that are relevant in dialect acquisition and change for mobile children.