The family unit plays a central role in the learning, use and transmission of a heritage language (HL). As a discursive space the family offers a context in which all members engage in negotiation, contestations to and the formation of the family language policy (FLP). Much of the literature often focuses on the role parents play in the formation of FLPs and concentrate less on the possible role grandparents may play in this process (Ruby, 2012; Kenner et al, 2007). However, work in this area is emerging and it interestingly highlights the important, sometimes unrecognised, role grandparents (Xian and Makarova, 2021; Lanza, 2021; Soler & Roberts, 2019) play in the transmission of HLs to young children.
This sociolinguistic paper describes the language transmission efforts of three Arabic speaking families in the UK to teach and use Arabic with their children at home and among their local Arabic speaking community. The project followed the families (two-parent) each consisting of three children (aged 2-9) with two of the families residing with a grandmother. The children all attended school or nursery in their local area as well as Arabic schools on the weekend. Data was collected in the form of audio recorded interactions, family background forms and parental interviews. Interview data was analysed thematically (Braun & Clarke, 2006), and interactional data was analysed from an interactional sociolinguistic standpoint (Rampton, 2019).
The data reveals that in addition to parents, grandparents seem to uniquely enhance not only the learning of Arabic, but also the experience of learning it. Although grandparents support parental beliefs and efforts, they also oftentimes contradict them. In family one, for example, the grandmother who resides with the family supports the mother's ideology of speaking to the children only in Arabic, although she prefers to speak to the children in spoken Arabic rather than the formal variety. The differences in choice of language use create tension within the home and may in the long run affect family efforts in the transmission of Arabic. This data illustrates the challenge the sociolinguistic reality of Arabic as a diglossic language (Ferguson, 1959) poses to parents in the context where Arabic is a minority language. Additionally, the findings also elucidate that, emotions and familial dynamics that are ever-present may affect intergenerational transmission of language.
In family two, the Irish grandmother, supports her grandchildren's learning of the Arabic language despite not speaking or understanding it. She watches Arabic speaking cartoons with the children, supervises their Arabic homework, and often learns songs (alphabet and other short songs) and sings with her grandchildren. The grandmother expresses that it is important to support her daughter-in-law's language beliefs and wishes to also teach her grandchildren Gaelic in the future. The finding illustrate that language practices can be consistently maintained even when the adult does not have knowledge of the language.
In all, the data shows that children undergo an enriched experience of HL learning when grandparents are involved in the day-to-day language practices of the family unit. The joint efforts to learn and maintain Arabic language seem to also bind families and in particular grandparents with their grandchildren and enhance the family relationship.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Kenner, C., Ruby, M., Jessel, J., Gregory, E., & Arju, T. (2007). intergenerational learning between children and grandparents in east London. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 5(3), 219–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X07080471
Lanza, E. (2021). How Grandparents Impact Languages in the Family | Psychology Today United Kingdom. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/living-languages/202105/how-grandparents-impact-languages-in-the-family
Rampton, B. (2019). Interactional sociolinguistics. In K. Tusting (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Ethnography (pp. 13–27). Routledge.
Ruby, M. (2012). The role of a grandmother in maintaining Bangla with her granddaughter in East London. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(1), 67–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2011.638075
Soler, J., & Roberts, T. (2019). Parents' and grandparents' views on home language regimes: Language ideologies and trajectories of two multilingual families in Sweden. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 16(4), 249–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2018.1564878
