Sender Dovchin
Drawing on ethnographic data from two schools in Western Australia involving young Aboriginal adolescents and children from refugee backgrounds, this article explores how heritage language users experience heritage language anxiety (HLA) - a form of language-related feelings of discomfort. The article aims to expand the conceptual scope of HLA by introducing the notion of racialized linguistic shame (RLS) as one of its key indicators. RLS is an internalized sense of anxiety arising from linguistic racism that these heritage language speakers feel, sense and embody. Rather than being a cognitive or psychological phenomenon, RLS is framed here as a deeply embodied, socially mediated and culturally shared emotion shaped by the effects of structural linguistic racism. The article calls for a critical shift in how we understand HLA, emphasizing the urgent need to recognize its racialized and emotional dimensions in heritage language education.