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20230720T083020230720T1615Europe/Amsterdam[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiationHybrid Session (onsite/online)AILA 2023 - 20th Anniversary Congress Lyon Editioncellule.congres@ens-lyon.fr
Grandparents as enthusiasts of multilingualism: the learning and maintenance of Arabic as a heritage language in the UK
Oral Presentation[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiation08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 09:30:00 UTC
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
Presenters Fatma Said Assistant Professor In Applied Linguistics, Zayed University, UAE
Language use in family – ethnic community interactions and youth agency: A power-solidarity matrix perspective
Oral Presentation[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiation08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 09:30:00 UTC
Minority families which are clustered into their ethnic community are often believed to have more chances of maintaining their language than those living far away from the community. Understanding language use in both home-family and neighbourhood-community domains would, therefore, enrich our knowledge about to what extent families and communities can side with one another in facilitating or constraining language maintenance or shift. In this presentation, I will discuss minority youth's agency in choosing languages for interactions with their family and community members in the Vietnamese context, and suggest implications for minority language maintenance and shift in relation to youth agency.
In Vietnam's mainstream education and wider society, languages of ethnic minority groups are not considered to be important or valuable, as compared with Vietnamese, the national language-which is also the language of the Kinh majority people. How minority youth who experience mainstream schooling manage their language use in such a Vietnamese-dominant social environment is an important question to be investigated. I will talk about youth agency in their language choice in communication with people of different ages and in different relations to them in their family and ethnic community, focusing in particular on a group of young minority adults' experience sand perspectives. Through the lens of a power-solidarity matrix (Brown & Gilman, 1960), I will examine four main types of interactions: communication with parents, communication with siblings, communication with young community members, and communication with older community members. The youth's language choice patterns suggest that they tended to perform a kind of "relational agency", where they (re)conceptualised their power and solidarity relationships with the interactants within a temporal-relational home or neighbourhood context (Burkitt, 2018). They exerted this relational agency in setting up their ethnic language as the power code associated with older members of the family and community, and considering Vietnamese, the mainstream language, as the generational solidarity code among young members. These language choice patterns, however, may result in disruption of L1 transmission among generations and perpetuate language shift.
It is commonly known that minority languages can be best preserved through intergenerational transmission within the family and the ethnic community where older members speak and transmit the L1 to younger members. Older family and community members' positive role and action in this process, however, are only half of the language maintenance battle (Smith-Christmas, 2016). Young people too have their own agency which can significantly shape their family and community members' language behaviours. Young people, hence, need to be involved in and play an active part in language maintenance efforts, as they are the future custodian of the vitality of their ethnic language and heritage culture.
References
Brown, R., & Gilman, A. (1960). The pronouns of power and solidarity. In T. A. Sebeok (Ed.), Style in language (pp. 253–276). MIT press.
Burkitt, I. (2018). Relational agency. In: Dépelteau, F. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Relational Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan,
Smith-Christmas, C. (2016). Family language policy: Maintaining an endangered language in the home. Palgrave Macmillan.
Family Language Policy in the Minority and Migration Contexts of Cyprus
Oral Presentation[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiation08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 09:30:00 UTC
This study investigated the family language policy of minority and immigrant families in Cyprus. The participants in our study were 30 immigrant and minority families in Cyprus with various first language backgrounds, namely Russian, Georgian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Romanian, English and Arabic, and minority speakers of Armenian, Lebanese and Pontic Greek. The data were collected via written questionnaires and oral, in-depth, semi-structured interviews, as well as via observations with a focus on the FLP, cultural and linguistic identities, heritage language attrition, use maintenance and transmission, linguistic interaction patterns and the material culture at home. The analysis of the data revealed that minority and immigrant speakers in Cyprus had hybrid language and cultural identities, different perceptions regarding citizenship, inclusion and belonging, as well as the attrition, use, maintenance and transmission of the HL, which reflected their FLPs, agency, practices and negotiations. They attempted to assimilate into the target society, but they also had strong links to the community of residence, to their L1 country, and to their heritage or home language. The participants also employed hybrid language practices, as they used mixed/multiple languages both in the home and outside of it. Overall, they had a positive attitude towards multilingualism in Cyprus.
The development, use, maintenance and transmission of the heritage language (HL) depend on the family language policy (FLP), on parental and child agency, and on the language choices, use and management practices at home, as well as regarding social networks and education (Lanza, 1997; Bohnacker, 2022). FLP can be explicit or implicit (Caldas, 2012). Immigrant or minority families live in the majority language (ML) environment; thus, children have more input in the ML via schooling and communication with their friends and peers (Pearson, 2007; Prevoo et al., 2011; Hoff et al., 2014). Without deliberate parental efforts to support the HL, language shift and loss may occur (Barron-Hauwaert, 2011; Bridges and Hoff, 2014; Rojas et al., 2016; Kheirkhah and Cekaite, 2018; Paradis et al., 2020). According to King et al. (2008: 907), FLP is 'explicit and overt planning in relation to language use within the home'. FLP practices can be implicit and covert (Curdt-Christiansen, 2009), and can be affected by emotions, identity, the impact of parental beliefs, strategies and practices in home language maintenance and development, child agency, and socioeconomic and sociopolitical factors (Curdt-Christiansen and Huang, 2020; Schwartz, 2020; Smith-Christmas, 2020). According to Spolsky's (2004, 2007) language policy model, the three components of language policy are language ideologies, language practices and language management, which are related to intra-family and societal factors (Bezcioglu-Goktolga and Kutlay Yagmur, 2022; Bohnacker, 2022). The success of the HL transmission depends on both macro factors, such as the sociolinguistic, sociocultural, economic and political environment of the families, and micro factors such as intra-family dynamics, FLP, parental efforts and expectations, attitudes, perceptions, affective domains, metalinguistic awareness and language experience, as well as cultural and linguistic identities (Curdt-Christiansen 2009, 2016; Leung and Uchikoshi, 2012; Spolsky, 2012; Liu and Lin, 2019). This study investigated the family language policy of minority and immigrant families in Cyprus. The participants in our study were 30 immigrant and minority families in Cyprus with various first language backgrounds, namely Russian, Georgian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Romanian, English and Arabic, and minority speakers of Armenian, Lebanese and Pontic Greek. The data were collected via written questionnaires and oral, in-depth, semi-structured interviews, as well as via observations with a focus on the FLP, cultural and linguistic identities, heritage language (HL) attrition, use maintenance and transmission, linguistic interaction patterns and the material culture at home. The analysis of the data revealed that minority and immigrant speakers in Cyprus had hybrid language and cultural identities, different perceptions regarding citizenship, inclusion and belonging, as well as the attrition, use, maintenance and transmission of the HL, which reflected their FLPs, agency, practices and negotiations. They attempted to assimilate into the target society, but they also had strong links to the community of residence, to their L1 country, and to their heritage or home language. The participants also employed hybrid language practices, as they used mixed/multiple languages both in the home and outside of it. Overall, they had a positive attitude towards multilingualism in Cyprus.
Presenters Sviatlana Karpava Lecturer In Applied Linguistics/TESOL, University Of Cyprus
Language management in Lithuanian diaspora families
Oral Presentation[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiation08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 09:30:00 UTC
The paper will analyze the family language policy of Lithuanian emigrant families. The research is based on quantitative (online survey sample N=2026) and qualitative (more than 300 interviews) data, gathered during two large-scale projects on Lithuanian diaspora from various continents. The theoretical standpoint follows Spolsky's language policy model, according to which language policy consists of three interrelated components: language practices, language beliefs or ideology, and language management. The focus of this paper is language management which is understood as an effort by someone to modify language practices or beliefs in a family domain. A model developed by Curdt-Christiansen, illustrating the complex interplay of the family language policy and its socio, cultural, political, linguistic environment will also be applied for the analysis. The paper will deal with internal (emotions, identity, parental impact beliefs) and external (language status, socio-economic and socio-political realities) factors influencing family language policy. The Lithuanian diaspora in various continents (Europe, North and South America, and Australia) consists of emigrants of different emigration waves. The first wave were those who emigrated in the end of 19th century from Lithuania that was under the Russian tzarist rule and later, after the WWI, from the independent Republic of Lithuania. This wave of emigration was mainly for economic reasons and consisted of people from rural areas with little or no education. The second wave of emigration consists of highly educated, mostly cultural, political and economical elite part of the Lithuanian society who flew the country at the end of WWII in fear of Soviet repressions. This wave is considered as political emigration. The third wave includes people who left for the West after the Restauration of Independence in 1990. This wave of emigration is generally of economic character. Family language policy and home language maintenance in the families of these various emigration waves is rather different. The paper will analyze language management strategies and internal and external factors influencing family language policy as well as compare the families of different emigration waves. The role of different family members, both parents and children, will also be taken into account. The analysis will consider the language policy of different generations of emigration: those who emigrated themselves, those who emigrated as children by the decision of the parents and those born later in the host country (second and third generation emigrants). The results show that the reason for emigration has a great impact on the language policy. The language policy and home language maintenance in the families of political emigrants is more influenced by the internal factors whereas in those of economical emigrants, the external factors seem to play a more important role. Curdt-Christiansen X. L. 2018. Family language policy. In J. Tollefson and M. Perez-Milans (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Language Policy and Planning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Spolsky B. 2004. Language policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sposkly B. 2009. Language management. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Towards conceptualizing ‘demographic agency’ in language maintenance scholarship: The case of family language policy in Arabic-Persian bilingual families in Iran
Oral Presentation[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiation08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 09:30:00 UTC
This paper investigates the success story of language maintenance in Arab families in Iran. Taking Fishman's (1991) emphasis on micro face-to-face interactions in language maintenance processes as our point of departure, we argue that, for such to happen, families need to live in a sociolinguistic milieu in which face-to-face interactions are facilitated by demographic patterns of settlement. Despite unfavorable institutional policies towards minority languages in Iran, the specific geographical make-up of the country has historically pushed speakers of minority languages to settle in certain regions (Katouzian, 2009). Drawing upon Sealey and Carter's (2004) concept of 'demographic agency', we would argue that such a demographic settlement of Arabs in southern cities and towns in Iran has given them a collective power to maintain their language, which takes the form of laissez-faire interactions in Arabic at home. Our findings based on interviews with families and recordings of interactions at home suggest that although parents express concern regarding their children's academic achievement and socioeconomic mobility, which requires higher proficiency in Persian, it does not readily translate into language practices in Persian at home.
In this paper, we apply Archer's (1995, 2000, 2003) realist social theory in which human practice is viewed as the source and origin of social life and social world. Cultural practices such as language use is thus taken to emerge from human action. However, human action, or agency, is taken neither as 'free will' nor 'totally determined and formed' by social structure. Rather, agency emerges in response to and interaction with social structure. Advocating an analytical separation of structure and agency, agency and structure are both considered to have real, distinct, and emergent properties that are irreducible to one another. Working within this school of thought, we seek to argue how under certain circumstances where minority languages are not institutionally supported, and thus, families alone have to shoulder the responsibility of raising their children bilingually, patterns of family formation and settlement could have a real impact on language use at home. Drawing upon Sealy and Carter's (2004) "demographic agency," we illustrate here how such an agency could be of an influence giving families a competitive edge against home-external detrimental forces such as monolingual educational policies. As Sealey and Carter (2004, p. 11) argue, "people collectively can exert an influence simply by virtue of their numbers," and "this cardinal power of agency" does not necessarily depend on only "the property of self-consciousness." In other words, in such communities, language ideologies and practices can just take a specific form because, rather than being a conscious decisions, they have been "accumulated and learned during biographically phased processes of socialization" (Blommaert, 2019, p. 5).
Archer, M. S. (1995). Realist social theory: The morphogenetic approach. Cambridge University Press. Archer, M. S. (2000). Being Human: The problem of agency. Cambridge University Press. an example of agential effect without any activity involved: dumb pressure of numbers Archer, M. S. (2003). Structure, agency and the internal conversation. Cambridge University Press. Blommaert, J. (2019). Foreword. In S. Haque (Ed.), Family language policy: Dynamics in language transmission under a migratory context (pp. 1-5). LINCOM. Sealey, A., & Carter, B. (2004). Applied linguistics as social science. Continuum.
Multilingual children as active agents in developing language policies and practices of families and schools in Iceland
Oral Presentation[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiation01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
The population of Iceland has become increasingly diverse in recent decades and this is reflected in student populations at all education levels. This paper aims to explore children's agency in language policies and practices of immigrant families as well as their agency in their preschools and compulsory schools. The main research question is: How is children's agency represented in multilingual contexts in diverse families and schools in Iceland? The theoretical framework of the study includes family language policy and bi- and multilingual education theories. According to King et al. (2008), the research field of family language policy (FLP) focuses on on how languages are learned, managed and negotiated within families. It brings together research on multilingualism, language acquisition, language policy and cultural studies. Schwartz (2018) has further discussed agency in interactions between children, teachers and parents. Furthermore, children's assertion of agency in language use and socialisation at home in multilingual families has been explored by Said & Zhu (2017). The findings of their research indicate that the children are aware of the language preferences of their parents and assert their agency through their linguistic choices to achieve their interactional goals. The project is a qualitative research study where the focus is on dialogue, observations and drawings from multilingual children in their family and school settings at preschool and compulsory school levels. The age of the children is 5-15 years old. Data from the children was collected in 2022, and data from the parents, teachers and principals in the children's schools was collected from 2020 to 2022 in semi-structured interviews, using interview guides developed by the researchers (Kvale, 2007). Finally, parents of the youngest children (age 5-7) were asked to write regular diaries with examples on their children's multiple language use at home. Findings indicated that the children in the study are active agents in developing language policies and practices in their families. In the school settings they appear to have fewer opportunities and appear to lack agency in developing their multilingualism. The findings also revealed that although the participating families have different language policies, they value their children's language repertoire and use diverse tools to support language development. However, some parents expressed their concerns related to the relatively high linguistical pressure that is put on their children who use up to four different languages on a daily basis, including heritage languages, Icelandic and English. The teachers in the study were interested in supporting the children's multilingualism, while many of them lacked knowledge and training in implementing multilingual and culturally responsive practices. Bibliography: King, K. A., Fogle, L. & Logan-Terry, A. (2008) Family language policy. Language and Linguistics Compass (2)5, 907-922. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2008.00076.x Kvale, S. (2007) Doing interviews. Sage. Said, F.F., & Zhu, H. (2019)."No, no Maama! Say 'Shaatir ya Ouledee Shaatir'!" Children's agency in language use and socialisation. International Journal of Bilingualism, 23(3), 771-785. Schwartz, M. (2018). Preschool bilingual education: Agency in interactions between children, teachers, and parents. In Preschool Bilingual Education (pp. 1-24). Springer.
Parental ideologies prioritizing Basque and their impact in Multilingual Family Language Policies
Oral Presentation[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiation01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
This presentation aims to show the impact parental language ideologies can have in Family Language Policies (FLP) that take a minority language, majority language and foreign language into consideration. The study presented is located in the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC), where a multilingual perspective to FLP is especially relevant taking into account the multilingual nature of the education system. In the BAC's public education system Basque, Spanish and English are offered as language of instruction and/or subject matter, depending on each school's language program. In addition, students are required to attain at least a B2 level in Basque and Spanish and a B1 level in English at the end of compulsory education (16 years). Most FLP studies have been often focused on policies regarding the minority language in the framework of the hegemonic position of a majority language without taking a foreign language into account, thus, the multilingual perspective of this study can make a contribution to the field. Language ideologies are of great importance in the field of FLP and Language Policy and Planning in general as they reflect the values and patterns in a specific society based on the beliefs and assumptions individuals have related to languages (Curdt-Christiansen, 2009). Those beliefs and assumptions (subconscious or not) have an influence on language management, and individual and societal language practices, which are interrelated as the three components of Language Policy (Spolsky, 2004, 2009). The data presented is based on a PhD dissertation that studies the FLPs of parents who live in a mostly Spanish-speaking area of the BAC and whose children attend a pro-Basque immersion school. Overall, data from 19 families have been collected through an online questionnaire, two semi-structured focus groups and fourteen semi-structured individual interviews. It will be shown that living in a mostly Spanish-speaking area, parents have an ideological position in favor of Basque, but they attach different values to Basque, Spanish and English. These values affect and determine to a great extent FLPs, hence, parents' language management strategies in their family and their declared language practices. Whilst all parents support Basque and positively value learning English, there are differences amongst them; the most activist parents, establishing an iron-cast hierarchy, prioritize Basque above all; English has been found to have a clear value and function but its place in this hierarchy varies; and in all cases Spanish is considered to be guaranteed and not requiring special ad hoc strategies. The study confirms the ideological positioning in relation to the minority language as a key factor in minority language FLPs, but also shows the impact of ideas about multilingual upbringing in their decisions, their expectations, and the degree of satisfaction or frustration with results.
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2009). Invisible and visible language planning: Ideological factors in the family language policy of Chinese immigrant families in Quebec. Language Policy, 8(4), 351-375. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-009-9146-7 Spolsky, B. (2004). Language policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Spolsky, B. (2009). Language management. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Disobeying Monolingualism through Family Language Policy During COVID Lockdowns: Opportunities and Challenges
Oral Presentation[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiation01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
In this autoethnographic exploration, I drew upon my insider-outsider positionality (Dwyer and Buckle 2009) as a first-generation immigrant mother of a preschool-age Chinese American child, Zixuan, and also a researcher specialized in multilingualism to examine how our family language policy and languaging practices evolved during COVID-19 lockdowns. Echoing emerging evidence from previous research, the findings of this study indicate that lengthened family interaction time during pandemic lockdowns has afforded Zixuan significantly more exposure and opportunities to enhance her heritage language. Meanwhile, this autoethnographic study also illustrates the constant dilemma in multilingual households during the global pandemic, striving to balance English acquisition and heritage language maintenance during their increased family time together. Despite the encouraging development of Zixuan's heritage language skills, her multilingualism was achieved at the cost of my constant ideological struggles between disobeying rampant English-only ideologies in society and feeling guilty about not centering academic English development in our family language policy. The study calls for future research to adopt a longitudinal design to explore whether shifting family language policies and languaging practices identified during COVID lockdowns may have long-term influences on children from multilingual households.
Although English is not the official language of the U.S., English-only ideologies are constantly reinforced by national and state-level educational policies (e.g., No Child Left Behind Act, Proposition 227 in California). Such top-down educational policies often pose challenges to heritage language maintenance and family language management (e.g., Curdt-Christiansen, 2016; Kaveh, 2018). Recent COVID-19 lockdowns, however, have offered unique opportunities to heritage language maintenance in multilingual households where children spend significantly more time with their parents (Li Sheng et al, 2021). How has the COVID-19 lockdown affected existing family language policies? What are some challenges and successes in negotiating family language policies to balance English development and heritage language maintenance? Informed by these questions, I adopt autoethnographic methods (Ellis & Bochner, 2006) to investigate the lived languaging experiences in a Chinese American multilingual household during COVID-19 lockdowns. Different from many previous studies on this topic where researchers often examine family language policies from outsider perspectives (e.g., Curdt-Christiansen, 2016; Kaveh, 2018), autoethnography provides a unique opportunity to enact an inward perspective. In this autoethnographic exploration, I drew upon my insider-outsider positionality as a researcher specialized in multilingualism and a first-generation immigrant mother of a 4-year-old Chinese American child, Zixuan, to examine how our family language policies are shaped by the COVID-19 lockdown. Data sources included (1) bilingual language logs documenting Zixuan's languaging practices over 96 hours; (2) my personal diaries from August 2019 to December 2021; and (3) multilingual and multiliteracy artifacts. Data were analyzed following the coding procedures of applied thematic analysis (Guest et al., 2012). The findings of this study indicate that the COVID-19 lockdown has substantially altered our family language policies which benefited Zixuan's heritage language maintenance. However, despite my resistance to the strong grip of English-only ideologies, I developed "multilingual guilt," worrying that Zixuan's Chinese development may come at the cost of her English skills. This has led to constant challenges and shifts in our family language policies which eventually regulated multilingual practices based on academic and social contexts. Through its unique insider-outsider lens, this autoethnographic study illustrates the constant dilemma in multilingual households, striving to balance English acquisition and heritage language maintenance.
References Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2016). Conflicting language ideologies and contradictory language practices in Singaporean multilingual families. Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, 37(7), 694-709. Ellis, C. & Bochner, A. (2006). Analyzing analytic autoethnography: An autopsy. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35(4), 429-449. Guest, G., MacQueen, K. M., & Namey, E. E. (2012). Applied thematic analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Kaveh, Y. M. (2018). Family language policy and maintenance of Persian: The stories of Iranian immigrant families in the northeast, USA. Language policy, 17(4), 443-477. Sheng, L., Wang, D., Walsh, C., Heisler, L., Li, X., & Su, P. L. (2021). The bilingual home language boost through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 3012.
Blurring the binaries of home/school in family language policy: Parents as teachers in heritage language lessons
Oral Presentation[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiation01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
The persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related lockdowns resulted in increased contact and interaction between parents and children at home as governments encouraged a work-from-home approach, with schools opting for online and remote teaching. Without sufficient infrastructure to support online learning in Zimbabwe, alternative teaching methods were adopted. For Zimbabwe, the pandemic could not have hit at a worse time. It found the country afflicted by socioeconomic and political challenges, driving the cost of online learning beyond the reach of many. Most schools opted for the affordable social messaging platform, WhatsApp, where children's school work was shared with parents, who in turn administered it to their children at home. This meant that parents had to assume the role of teachers in this new setting, positioning them as authorities in various subjects. This blurred the binaries of home/school as parents participated in children's schooling more formally. For minoritised language families, these lessons presented opportunities for parents to reinforce Family Language Policy (FLP) and authoritatively influence children's language practices. By focusing on the role of parents as teachers during heritage language lessons, this paper discusses how parents' language ideologies are embedded into the teaching and learning of Ndebele in a family living in an urban area in Zimbabwe and how language transactions and negotiations in these encounters are infused with FLP dynamics. Ndebele is a historically minoritised and marginalised language in Zimbabwe. Interactions between parents and children during heritage language lessons and other literacy activities are part of FLP since 'these dialogues illuminate what language inputs parents provide, how the quality and quantity of inputs enrich the linguistic environment in which children develop bi/multiliterate skills' (Curdt-Christiansen, 2013:102). Drawing on this view of FLP, I discuss how the focal family's language transactions during lessons reproduce the tensions, negotiations, resistance and agency which characterise their FLP. The study also shows how children negotiate agency by deploying resistance strategies, sometimes resulting in parents' revision and negotiation of their FLP. Given the history of minoritisation of Ndebele in official spaces in Zimbabwe (Ncube and Siziba, 2017; Ndhlovu, 2008), the family is key to its survival. Ndebele language lessons provided a temporary redress to the problem of Ndebele being taught through the lenses of non-first language Ndebele teachers in Bulawayo and other parts of Matabeleland. This problem has resulted in frequent and often emotionally charged outcries. The school closures presented opportunities for the teaching of Ndebele by parents through a 'Ndebele lens' at home, legitimising its use in an English-Shona dominant context.
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2013a) Negotiating family language policy: Doing homework. In M. Schwartz and A. Verschik (eds.) Successful Family Language Policy 277–295. Dordrecht: Springer. Ncube, G. and Siziba, G. (2017) Compelled to perform in the 'oppressor's' language? Ndebele performing artists and Zimbabwe's Shona-centric habitus. Journal of Southern African Studies 43(4): 825–836. Ndhlovu, F. (2008). The conundrums of language policy and politics in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Australian Journal of Linguistics 28(1): 59–80
Presenters Busani Maseko Post Doc , North-West University
Heritage languages as a problem, right or resource? Language dynamics of Indian transnational immigrant families in Northern Ireland
Oral Presentation[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiation01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
Whilst discussions around language policy in Northern Ireland (NI) primarily focus on its two indigenous languages: Irish (Gaelic) and Ulster-Scots, many other languages are spoken in this geopolitical context, especially those of the transnational communities. Having been settled since the 1920s, the Indians are one of the longest-established ethnic minorities in NI, representing around 0.34% of the total non-'white' residents and they speak a range of languages (Census, 2011). However, the family language policies of this community concerning their heritage languages (hence, HLs) are under-researched in the United Kingdom, particularly in NI. There is no top-down policy to promote these languages. The paper is informed by year-long ethnographic fieldwork in the Indian Community Centre in Belfast and two focus groups. The findings show the language dynamics of eight Belfast-based Indian families who are first-generation migrants. Their language practices in the home and beyond will allow us to (1) examine whether there is any hierarchy in practice regarding English and HLs in the family; (2) predict the kind of strategies these parents use individually and/or collectively to maintain their HLs and (3) identify the factors responsible for success or failure of these strategies.
Immigration waves in many parts of the world including in Europe, Asia and the Americas have contributed to their pre-existing linguistic and cultural diversity through the spread of various heritage languages (hence, HL) and cultures. In the context of migration, HL refers to the language(s) practised in the home and familial contexts. For immigrant communities, HLs represent a fundamental means of shared expression and construction of ethnic identity. However, in the host society, the pressure of dominant language(s) on these minoritized languages is relentless, partly because many users of these languages can see more opportunities if they shift to the majority or dominant one. Despite these pressures, HL speakers to varying degrees maintain or reclaim their languages as active agents through intergenerational transmission and everyday interactions. Therefore, researching the family's language decisions regarding HLs and cultures is vital as they offer important insights into the dynamics of identity formation and home language development as well as maintenance in transnational communities.
Presenters Anik Nandi Juan De Cierva Postdoctoral Researcher, Universidad Del País Vasco (UPV/EHU)
Fatma Said
Sviatlana Karpava 
Jogile Teresa Ramonaite
Meilute Ramoniene
Anh-Dao Katrin Tran
Ibon Manterola
Busani Maseko
Anik Nandi
