Family Language Planning

Resumo Nunha sociedade bilingüe cada individuo adulto ten as súas propias prácticas lingüísticas e crenzas sobre a elección do idioma dentro da familia; polo tanto, as prácticas lingüísticas no ámbito familiar son sumamente importantes para entender o proceso de transmisión interxeracional dunha lingua desfavorecida. O principal obxectivo deste traballo é investigar as estratexias para a transmisión interxeracional do galego no contexto familiar dos hábitats urbano e peri-urbano. Cun enfoque etnográfico, analizarase a axencia dos proxenitores pro-galego que, a través das súas crenzas e prácticas lingüísticas individuais, desempeñan un papel relevante na revitalización e mantemento da lingua fóra da escola, concretamente na familia. Para este estudo entrevistáronse proxenitores que pasaron polo sistema educativo de Galicia a partir de 1975 e viviron as primeiras políticas lingüísticas da Autonomía. A través de datos etnográficos, analízanse notas de campo e observacións, entrevistas semi-estruturadas cos proxenitores de Santiago de Compostela e Bertamiráns e dous grupos de discusión en Vigo e Santiago. Neste estudo tamén se propón unha aproximación de conceptos sociolingüísticos como política lingüística familiar e os seus efectos inmediatos na práctica lingüística a nivel micro, a planificación das linguas na familia e as estratexias que os proxenitores utilizan para transmitir a lingua galega.

Palabras chave: Política lingüística familiar; galego; transmisión interxeracional; bilingüismo; etnografía Sumario

Nesta tese pretendo descrever uma pesquisa cujo objetivo foi conhecer e interpretar as representações de um grupo de adultos vinculados à Associação de Pais de Brasileirinhos na Catalunha (APBC) sobre as políticas linguísticas familiares e institucionais relativas ao Português como Língua de Herança (PLH) nesse contexto. Para tanto, fez-se uso de subsídios advindos da Linguística Aplicada brasileira e da Sociolinguística catalã, áreas de estudo interdisciplinares. O PLH, isto é, o português usado por brasileiros emigrados quando ainda crianças ou jovens, ou por filhos de brasileiros nascidos fora do Brasil, se caracteriza por derivar de deslocamento geográfico e por ser língua minoritária em contato com a(s) língua(s) majoritária(s) da sociedade de acolhida. Seu aprendizado é intermitente e costuma se dar no interior da família, de modo informal e, em geral, pouco sistematizado. Os procedimentos metodológicos utilizados na investigação incluíram (i) questionários aplicados a um grupo de pais e professoras da instituição; (ii) entrevistas semiestruturadas, gravadas em áudio, com esses participantes da pesquisa; (iii) gravação de discussão ocorrida em um grupo focal com alguns desses sujeitos e (iv) observação participante de algumas das atividades desenvolvidas na APBC. Exceto pelos questionários, esse conjunto de dados foi analisado de uma perspectiva qualitativa. O aparato teórico utilizado como suporte para a análise desse corpus incluiu, dentre outras, reflexões sobre afetividade e multilinguismo (PAVLENKO, 2005), repertórios linguísticos (BUSCH, 2012), práticas translíngues (GARCIA, 2009; CANAGARAJAH, 2013) e políticas linguísticas (SPOLSKY, 2012; 2004). O corpus analisado sugere – ou corrobora achados já apontados em estudos anteriores – que (1) os níveis de fluência em PLH considerados nesse tipo de contexto tendem a ser bastante heterogêneos: eles compreendem desde entender um pouco do que é dito na língua a usá-la com desenvoltura em registros cultos; (2) o perfil do que se considera “usuário de língua de herança” se relaciona não apenas com o conhecimento da língua, mas, também, com o sentimento de identificação/pertencimento à cultura e nacionalidade do grupo que a usa; (3) a questão da afetividade emerge e determina muitas das relações construídas entre usuários de PLH. Observou-se ainda que a especificidade da sociedade de acolhida pode ser um fator determinante no modo como as ideologias linguísticas das famílias operam nesses contextos. Neste caso específico, em que o catalão opera como língua cooficial da Catalunha, ao lado do espanhol, parece haver uma tendência das famílias a valorizar o bi/plurilinguismo de seus filhos e o PLH é parte do que faz com que as crianças sejam identificadas como plurilíngues. Os dados analisados também parecem evidenciar que o papel dos progenitores não brasileiros do estudo tende a ser decisivo no processo de transmissão de PLH, mesmo quando eles não são fluentes em português. Por último, importa ressaltar que, em diversos momentos, as representações de falantes de PLH analisadas se aproximam mais dos paradigmas do que seria o cidadão global plurilíngue (JAFFE, 2012) do que daqueles que remetem ao cidadão nacional monolíngue, algo que nem sempre é percebido pelos progenitores participantes da pesquisa em pauta.

يتناول البحث الحديث عن رائد التخطيط اللغوي وتعريب التعليم في اللغة العربية، وهو أمير المؤمنين  عمر بن الخطاب رضي الله تعالى عنه، من خلال جمع القرآن الكريم في كتاب واحد، وتعريب التعليم عندما أرسل المعلمين إلى البصرة والكوفة لتعليم الموالي اللغة العربية.
This study attempted to investigate and unveil the linguistic planning among the Arabs in old times by reading available modern literature and references, and comparing them to what was written by Arab scholars in classical literary. The aim of the research was to see the beginning of linguistic planning among the Arabs, the implied topics in their books and scientific values. The result of the research showed the linguistic planning known by the Arabs before the advent of Islam, Quraish known political organization mentioned in the Koran, the codification of the Koran during the Prophet's (peace be upon him) era, the order of Abu Bakr to Omar bin al-Khattab on arabization of education to other Arabic speakers, Omar bin Abdul ' Aziz's effort in codifying the Sunnah, and the innovation of Khalil ibn Ahmad Faraaheedi in prosody, and Qomoha and Benoit's ways in correcting linguistic errors.

Recent decades have seen transformations in family structures and kinship relations, largely as an outcome of globalization, transnationalism, and post-industrial societal processes. These changes have included increases in transnational kinship configurations, transnational adoption, same-sex parent families, single-parent families, and grandparents as primary caregivers (Boehm, 2008; Esposito & Biafora, 2007; Poveda et al., 2014). Despite this growing diversity in potential family and kinship arrangements, many if not most studies of bi- and multilingual family language policy continue to focus on middle-class families with two, cis-gender heterosexual parents, or fail to foreground family configurations as an influential aspect of language socialization. Fluidity in family structures and “new” family configurations potentially shape the possibilities for the development of bilingual/multilingual competence and further connect to parental involvement at school as well as children’s identities and belonging. Investigating single parent and LGBTQ identified families is important because such families tend to emphasize social networks outside of the nuclear family unit in caregiving and socialization and thus provide exciting insights into the potential role of the outside community in bilingual development as well as a focus on children’s agency in the family. Future work in this area will focus on different parenting configurations, multiple and complex language ideologies, and the children’s agency in interactional processes in the home with greater attention to contexts out of the home that shape these phenomena.

This study examines the role of new speaker parents who have made a conscious decision to bring up their children in Galician, a language which they themselves did not acquire in the home. Although intergenerational transmission has for long been considered a crucial part of linguistic vitality, new speakers bring complexity to this paradigm and in particular prompt questions about their role as parents and as potential agents of sociolinguistic change in the process of language revitalisation. Through their individual as well as collective linguistic practices, new speaker parents have the potential to generate visible and/or invisible language planning on the ground, influencing their children’s language learning and creating future generations of speakers. As such, these parents, through their own linguistic behaviour can play a potentially significant role in the revitalisation and maintenance of Galician outside the school through their family language policies in the home. Drawing on two focus group discussions involving seven families in two of Galicia’s urban centres, Santiago de Compostela and Vigo, we investigate, how these new speaker parents exercise their agency and become policy makers in their homes.

Ce travail de recherche s’inscrit dans une approche pluridisciplinaire – monographique, ethnographique et sociolinguistique avec une dimension longitudinale. Il tente de décrire de manière approfondie les pratiques langagières familiales de quatre familles indiennes immigrantes installées dans quatre pays européens : la France, la Suède, la Norvège et la Finlande. Cette étude cherche également à cerner les enjeux des politiques linguistiques familiales, domaine dans lequel peu de recherches ont été entreprises et qui, de ce fait, reste à développer. Par ailleurs, les idéologies et attitudes concernant les langues se traduisent dans les décisions prises par les chefs de la famille, les parents, qui privilégient l’apprentissage de telle ou telle langue, pour eux-mêmes et surtout pour les enfants. Au plan macro, la politique linguistique nationale de chacun des pays concernés par notre étude est évoquée, y compris celle de l’Inde, avec un centrage sur la politique linguistique éducativ...

Duff, P. (2020). Multiscalar research on family language policy and planning in China: Commentary. Current Issues in Language Planning. ABSTRACT
This commentary foregrounds factors and tensions involved in intergenerational language socialization in Chinese-speaking communities and homes. Of particular interest is the manner in which younger generations in homes in which other Chinese dialects (fangyans) are spoken almost invariably seem to be shifting to Mandarin, and some of the consequences of that shift for language maintenance, cultural vitality and legitimacy, and intergenerational communication. Collectively, the reported research raises concerns about the relative status of different fangyans vis-à-vis the powerful standard variety, Mandarin, which is promoted heavily through media and language policies (as is English), in conjunction with both formal and informal education at different levels. Practical considerations favor the adoption of Mandarin to facilitate communication and successful social integration within large, diverse urban centers with a growing population of migrants from other regions and dialect areas of China. A more linguistically homogeneous Chinese population theoretically confers on individuals and society certain social, educational, and economic advantages, and thus potential opportunities for upward social mobility. However, the situation also raises deep concerns regarding cultural sustainability for ethnolinguistic and regional minorities and their rich traditions and heritage, and exposes vast social disparities within and across communities. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14664208.2020.1840833

In order to understand the language context of higher education in South Africa it is necessary to investigate the way in which languages are managed and negotiated in/by families and individuals through language choices. In the literature the individual is regarded as the starting point for language management (cf. Spolsky, 2009:11; Jernudd & Neustupný, 1987:82). This paper aims at exploring language choices in terms of family (Schwartz, 2010) or private language planning (Piller, 2001) by means of qualitative research.

Spolsky (2004:5) distinguishes between three components that make up the language policy of a particular speech community: “its language practices – the habitual pattern of selecting among the varieties that make up its linguistic repertoire; its language beliefs or ideology – the beliefs about language and language use; and any specific efforts to modify or influence that practice by any kind of language intervention, planning or management”. This approach allows language planning to be extended from not only being used in terms of a wider speech community but smaller groupings and individuals as well (cf. Orman, 2008:40). This paper focussed on the individual and the family and in this regard the emerging field of family language policy (Schwartz, 2010:171) is relevant. Family language policy is defined by Curdt-Christiansen (2009:352) as “a deliberate attempt at practicing a particular language use pattern and particular literacy practices within home domains and among family members”. This paper attempted at gauging language use patterns and literacy practices within the family context in order to understand language choices made.

The research conducted for this paper involved the conducting of open ended questionnaires and interviews with university students to determine the nature of language planning for/of individuals within families. Analysis of the data was done with Atlas.ti. The language choices (cf. Spolsky, 2009:28-29), made by or on behalf of students are key to this paper. This paper further aims at explaining why these choices were made.

The present study investigates Iranian immigrants’ family language policy toward heritage language literacy acquisition and maintenance in New Zealand. Parental beliefs, practices, and efforts toward their children’s minority language (i.e., Persian) literacy acquisition and maintenance are investigated through Spolsky’s (2004) model of language policy. The analysis of the data, i.e., semi-structured interviews with twenty-four parents of Persian-English bilinguals (6–18 year old), reveals that it was very uncommon for the heritage speakers to have high literacy skills, which the parents attributed largely to the lack of community-based heritage language schools in the host country. Additionally, while the parents reported that they would like their children to have high levels of conversational fluency as well as cultural knowledge, few of them believed that literacy can be a vehicle for both.

Over 50% of the Brazilians abroad are women, a proportion which appears to be even higher if we consider the number of mothers whose children attend Brazilian Portuguese language lessons in complementary schools in London. There are schools in which the majority of the mothers are Brazilian migrants married to fathers of different nationalities, thus the relevance of the role these women play in the maintenance of their language. This article explores how their linguistic and cultural identities are affected upon migration and how their sense of identity impacts on their family language planning. I argue that language seems to be essential to the maintenance of group identity in the case of these Brazilian mothers and that their success in passing their language on to their children affects their sense of motherhood. I highlight however that both mothers and fathers should participate equally in family language planning.

Recent language policy and planning research reveals how policy-makers endorse the interests of dominant social groups, marginalise minority languages and perpetuate systems of sociolinguistic inequality. In the Castilian-dominated Galician linguistic landscape, this study examines the rise of grassroots level actors or agents (i.e. parents, family members, and other speakers of minority Galician) who play a significant role in interpreting and implementing language policy on the ground. The primary focus of this study is to investigate the impact of top-down language policies inside home domain, it looks at how the individual linguistic practices and ideologies of Galician parents act as visible and/or invisible language planning measures influencing their children’s language learning. However, these individual linguistic ideologies and language management decisions are difficult to detect because they are implicit, subtle, informal, and often hidden from the public eye, and therefore, frequently overlooked by language policy researchers and policy makers. Drawing from multiple ethnographic research methods including observations, in-depth fieldwork interviews, focus group discussions and family language audits with thirty-two Galician parents, this study attempts to ascertain whether these parents can restore intergenerational transmission of Galician and if their grassroots level interrogation of the dominant discourse could lead to bottom-up language policies.
Available from: https://www.ros.hw.ac.uk/handle/10399/3360

Drawing on Stroud’s (2018) analytical framework of sociolinguistic citizenship, this chapter investigates the complex association between governmental language policies and how they are interpreted, implemented and/or negotiated by various social actors (e.g., parents, children), revealing ideological spaces for the use or non-use of minority languages in multilingual societies. This will be studied in relation to urban landscapes of two Castilian-Spanish dominated geopolitical settings of Spain: Galicia and the Basque Autonomous Community, where a collective of pro-minority language parents have made a conscious decision to bring up their children in either Galician or Basque. Using multiple qualitative research methods, including observations, interviews and focus groups, we demonstrate how these parents become policy intermediaries at home and in the exterior by monitoring their children’s language development through favourable literacy atmosphere in the minority language, developing prestige for the minority language through continuous encouragement, selecting and promoting companionship with minority-language-speaking peers of their children. Moreover, we argue that the parents’ under-the-radar participation in the policy discourse may appear extremely intermittent and ad hoc, but their individual actions, when galvanised into collective mobilisations such as setting up minority-language-medium schools (historically in the BAC and more recently in Galicia), can lead to bottom-up language policies.

Translanguaging is seen both as a threat and as an opportunity for minority language development and transmission. While the theme of translanguaging has been explored especially in a context of migration, the novelty of this study lies in its investigation of the multiple contexts in which translanguaging is examined. In order to understand the nature of translanguaging, we adopt a novel interdisciplinary approach and view it in all its complexity, including liminal spaces of linguistic landscape. Family language policy affects the home linguistic environment. Our purpose is to investigate language choices by multilingual Russian-speakers in Cyprus, Sweden and Estonia, immigrant and minority settings, and try to understand how they are reflected in the multilingual interaction of the families. Using ethnographic participant observations and oral spontaneous multilingual production, our study attempts to describe how communication is managed through translanguaging practices among m...

Recent developments in multilingualism research have challenged the traditional view which sees language as monolithic unit, and instead have proposed to treat languages as socially constructed linguistic resources that language users can deploy to make sense of their multilingual world. Despite such theoretical development, however, there is a strong monolithic ideology in multilingual childrearing, which influence the ways they see and use languages.

In order to explore such a gap, this paper critically examines the translingual practice of bilingual children at family-home context, by examining the data from 16-month ethnographic fieldwork. This paper particularly focuses on the language practice between two Japanese-English bilingual siblings (aged 4 and 6) and their Japanese mother who reported that the family employ One-Parent One-Language (OPOL) policy.

The paper firstly explores how the OPOL family language policy has maintained at family home context, which eventually constructed a special meaning between the children and the Japanese-speaking mother - playing a crucial role in child-mother relationship. It then highlights the ways children strategically employ their unique linguistic resources in their situated language practices. This paper argues that although monolithic ideology is strongly upheld at individuals’ perception level through the family language policy, it is almost impossible to separate ‘language’ in actual interactions. Thus, the paper sheds lights on the multilingual children’s creativity and strategic use of their linguistic resources, where they play around with this strict monolithic family language policy.

This study explores how daily video calls were used by two multilingual family constellations to keep in contact with members located elsewhere. A three-stage data collection and analysis protocol was developed together with the two main participants, two single mothers each with a 4-year-old child. The results show that active collaboration among all members of the family was needed to get the activity going. The families employed a de facto family language policy where the focus was on successful communication and nurturing emotional bonds rather than developing language skills. At the same time, the regular video calls added a significant amount of time spent together and increased the amount of language input, factors conducive to language transmission. The study shows the urgent need to include digital practices in family language policy research.

In dieser Studie wird untersucht, wie tägliche Video-Telefonate von zwei mehrsprachigen Familien genutzt werden, um mit weiter entfernt wohnenden Familienmitgliedern in Kontakt zu bleiben. Dazu wurde ein dreistufiges Datenerhebungsverfahren mit den zwei zentralen Untersuchung-steilnehmerinnen entwickelt, zwei alleinerziehenden Müttern mit ihrem jeweils vierjährigen Kind. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die aktive Mitarbeit aller Familienmitglieder benötigt wurde, um die Gespräche auf Distanz durchzuführen. Die Familien nutzen eine Family Language Policy, bei der der Fokus nicht auf der Entwicklung sprachlicher Kompetenz, sondern auf der erfolgreichen Kommunikation und der Unterstützung der emotionalen Beziehung zwischen den Beteiligten lag. Gleichzeitig bedeuteten die regelmäßigen Video-Telefonate mehr gemeinsam verbrachte Zeit und verstärkter sprachlicher Inputs, Faktoren also, die den Spracherwerb begünstigen. Die Studie zeigt den dringenden Bedarf, digitale Praxen in der Family Language Policy-Forschung stärker zu berücksichtigen.

This paper primarily focuses on the family language policy of bilingual Russian-Estonian and Russian-Spanish families in relation to the maintenance of Russian as a heritage language. Its main objective is to identify social factors that either help or hinder this process. In doing so, this paper searches for commonalities and specificities of the mainstream attitudes towards Russian as a heritage language in Estonia and Spain, by analysing the sociolinguistic situation of Russian in both countries and by examining the factors conditioning the maintenance of Russian as a heritage language in family settings. Our research is based on an in-depth analysis of a variety of sources, mainly quantitative statistical and demographic data on self-reported language behaviour and language ideologies in mixed families from Estonia (n = 40) and Spain (n = 40). The main results of our comparative study confirm the general positive attitude towards Russian as a heritage language, but they also hig...

Addressing the paucity of research on the experiences of Arabic-speaking Muslim immigrant families, this study investigated the family language policy (FLP) of a Libyan family currently residing in the Southeast United States. More specifically, it focused on the impact of the parents' language ideologies and ethnolinguistic aspirations on their language planning decisions about their daughter's maintenance of Arabic. It drew upon the theoretical constructs of language ideologies (Woolard, 1998) and capital (Bourdieu, 1986). Part of a larger study, the data in this paper are gleaned from two sources: a questionnaire and two rounds of semi-structured individual interviews. The findings suggested that the Abdel-Aziz family's FLP is driven by the parents' vision and expectations for their children's language use, which include (a) aspirations to develop bilingualism and maintain ethnolinguistic identity, (b) aspirations to develop biculturalism and resist cultural colonization, (c) participating in religious practices and communities, and (d) maintaining relationships with family and Libyan society. In light of the findings, this paper discusses the complex interplay between "linguistic and non-linguistic forces" (Curdt-Christiansen, 2016) in parental language ideologies that influence the emergence and enactment of FLPs. This interplay involves the intertwined nature of language and religious identity, the family's responses to the dominant societal ideologies in the U.S., and the understanding of linguistic, cultural, and social capital (Ferguson, 2013; Gomaa, 2011; Mills, 2004).

This paper primarily focuses on the family language policy of bilingual Russian-Estonian and Russian-Spanish families in relation to the maintenance of Russian as a heritage language. Its main objective is to identify social factors that either help or hinder this process. In doing so, this paper searches for commonalities and specificities of the mainstream attitudes towards Russian as a heritage language in Estonia and Spain, by analysing the sociolinguistic situation of Russian in both countries and by examining the factors conditioning the maintenance of Russian as a heritage language in family settings. Our research is based on an in-depth analysis of a variety of sources, mainly quantitative statistical and demographic data on self-reported language behaviour and language ideologies in mixed families from Estonia (n = 40) and Spain (n = 40). The main results of our comparative study confirm the general positive attitude towards Russian as a heritage language, but they also highlight an important variability of these attitudes both between countries and within each community. We show that these attitudes directly determine the principles of family language policy, the parents' strategies to transmit Russian as a heritage language, and the level of proficiency in Russian as a heritage language in the second generation. These results allow us to conclude that, as a heritage language, Russian relies on strong attitudinal support in even small communities, like Estonian or Spanish, but also that its confident transmission should rely on external subsidy.

The preservation of cultural and linguistic diversity in today's world is a major concern to scientists, governments, community leaders, and advocates of linguistic human rights. More than half of the 7000 languages currently spoken in the world are estimated to be in danger of disappearing during the 21st century. In the contemporary era of globalization, the pressure of dominant languages on minority languages is relentless, partly because many speakers of smaller languages can see more opportunities if they shift to a dominant one. Despite these pressures, however, many minority language speakers (both indigenous minorities and in the context of migration) continue to maintain or reclaim their languages as active agents through everyday interactions and the transmission of the language within the home. Based on the framework of Critical Language Policy that investigates questions of power, ideology, legitimacy and marginalisation, this chapter aims to understand the dynamics of minority language speaking families in multilingual settings and their grassroots-level practices. The intention is also to examine the agentive role of individual family members within this discourse.

Introduction: Client satisfaction is considered as the best indicator of the quality of service provision and a major element to boost the uptake of family planning (FP) services. This study aimed to compare the quality of services and client satisfaction in both private and public health facilities in Nigeria. Methodology: Facility-based cross-sectional study was carried out from June 7-28, 2017 by African Health Research team with 498 female FP users. Respondents were selected by using systematic random sampling from 12 private, and 18 public health facilities in Nigeria. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to collect data and the data were analyzed using IBM-SPSS version 25.0 and statistically significant association was declared at p-value <0.05. Result: The study found that the waiting time for most of the clients in both private (62.7%) and public (75.2%) was less than 30 minutes (p=0.101). While 73.1% of FP clients in private facilities were satisfied with waiting time, 82.1% reported the same in public facilities (p<0.081). The average quality of service was significantly higher in public facilities (93.3%) than the private (86.6%) (p<0.001). No significant difference was observed in overall client satisfaction between private (88.7%) and public facilities (92.4), p = 0.858. Conclusion: This study found high quality of FP services and client satisfaction in both public and private health facilities in Nigeria, though public facilities showed higher quality of services than the private facilities. However, there is a need for more improvement in both facilities to enhance client satisfaction.

This chapter focuses on Russian and its heritage language use, maintenance and transmission in Cyprus (which shares the Eastern Orthodox religion with Russia), in Estonia (part of the USSR until 1991) and Sweden (a somewhat neutral country vis-à-vis the USSR and Russia). Drawing on theoretical issues of family language policy, we investigated multilingual families, consisting of majority language (MajL)-speaking and Russian-speaking members, examining whether Russian is maintained and transferred to the next generation. Under ‘multilingual family’, we include four situations: (1) a Russian speaker and a MajL speaker, (2) a Russian-MajL mixed speaker and a MajL speaker, (3) both parents are Russian-MajL mixed speakers (common in Estonia) and (4) both parents are Russian speakers (more common in Cyprus). Our results show the discrepancies between the desired and valid efforts and choices in Russian-language transmission. We examined how these phenomena occurred and what practical issues and societal factors affected the Russian language in the (home) lives of the families.

This chapter focuses on Russian and its heritage language use, maintenance and transmission in Cyprus (which shares the Eastern Orthodox religion with Russia), in Estonia (part of the USSR until 1991) and Sweden (a somewhat neutral country vis-à-vis the USSR and Russia). Drawing on theoretical issues of family language policy, we investigated multilingual families, consisting of majority language (MajL)-speaking and Russian-speaking members, examining whether Russian is maintained and transferred to the next generation. Under ‘multilingual family’, we include four situations: (1) a Russian speaker and a MajL speaker, (2) a Russian-MajL mixed speaker and a MajL speaker, (3) both parents are Russian-MajL mixed speakers (common in Estonia) and (4) both parents are Russian speakers (more common in Cyprus). Our results show the discrepancies between the desired and valid efforts and choices in Russian-language transmission. We examined how these phenomena occurred and what practical issues and societal factors affected the Russian language in the (home) lives of the families.

Cet article est une réflexion sur la notion de prestige linguistique en lien avec la transmission des langues au sein des familles immigrantes en Europe, dans des contextes spatiaux et temporels diversifiés. Les données proviennent d&#39;une solide enquête de terrain concernant quatre familles indiennes installées en Europe (en France, en Suède, en Norvège et en Finlande). La langue de prestige pour les familles de la diaspora indienne est principalement l&#39;anglais et, dans certains cas, les langues du pays d&#39;accueil. Les parents cultivent une nouvelle fierté de transmettre à leurs enfants ces langues de prestige qui sont connotées comme des langues de la réussite, au détriment parfois des langues indiennes. Quels arguments sont-ils invoqués pour attribuer de la valeur à une langue ? Les entretiens menés et les outils ethnographiques employés sur le terrain montrent que les réponses à ces questions varient selon le contexte et le répertoire langagier concerné, mais que l&#39;...

The article presents some of the results of a sociolinguistic research on the multilingual practices and representations of Francophone Belgians of immigrant descent. We focus on the perceived relationships between bi-or multilingualism and social integration or, conversely, marginalization. The study reveals that for our participants, there is no contradiction between the legitimate and necessary command of the French language in Francophone Belgium and their wish to see the language(s) of their parents preserved and practiced in the private sphere. Rejecting the idea that language maintenance has anything to do with a reluctance to integrate oneself, the participants articulate the status they give to languages and bilingualism and the way they regard the question of integration. Focussing more specifically on linguistic practice, ideologies and bias, the respondents assert that postmigration identities are necessarily built on the premise of plurality and on the condition that social integration can be experienced in positive terms.

Recent developments in multilingualism research have challenged the traditional view which sees language as a countable monolithic unit, and proposed to conceptualise languages as socially constructed linguistic resources that language users can deploy to make sense of their multilingual world within situated practices.

By highlighting ethnographic data from a 16-month fieldwork with multilingual families which employ a One-Parent One-Language policy, this paper specifically examines the dilemmas of minoritylanguage
speakers – Japanese mothers in this study – in what regards multilingual childrearing. Unlike traditional studies which focused merely on the ‘parental role,’ this paper captures ‘parents’ from a more holistic viewpoint that considers their various social roles adopted in real-life contexts.

On one hand, this paper reveals parents’ flexible use of linguistic resources in their daily lives; on the other hand, however, they do not acknowledge such flexible multilingual practices at the level of their
perception, due to their strong belief in the popular discourse around OPOL policy, which promotes a monolithic language ideology.

Although OPOL is traditionally believed to be one of the ‘best’ ways of raising multilingual children, this paper argues that OPOL may instead reinforce negative perceptions towards their flexibility of deploying language resources. In addition, more flexible approaches also help parents to bridge the unavoidable gap between OPOL discourses and the social reality.

In the past decade, research on language policy has shifted from a top–down approach toward the inclusion of micro-political aspects and ethnographic approaches. In studies of bilingualism and bilingual acquisition the role of parents and parenting has always been mentioned as an important (although somewhat peripheral) factor. In this paper, our aim is to bring these two strands of research together, by putting parents at the center stage of our investigation and showing how having children can considerably qualify the effects of a particular language policy at the micro level. We will do so by presenting the case of a transnational couple with a ‘mixed’ language background who are confronted with the two-tier organization of the city they live in (Brussels, Belgium). As we will see, having children has turned a previously ‘invisible’ top–down language policy into a salient reality for these parents, with a clear influence on their micro-political agency and their sense of belonging. By taking the example of this particular couple as a point of departure, we will discuss what education policy options could be implemented to cater for the particular situation of transnational parents in general.

Translanguaging is seen both as a threat and as an opportunity for minority language development and transmission. While the theme of translanguaging has been explored especially in a context of migration, the novelty of this study lies in its investigation of the multiple contexts in which translanguaging is examined. In order to understand the nature of translanguaging, we adopt a novel interdisciplinary approach and view it in all its complexity, including liminal spaces of linguistic landscape. Family language policy affects the home linguistic environment. Our purpose is to investigate language choices by multilingual Russian-speakers in Cyprus, Sweden and Estonia, immigrant and minority settings, and try to understand how they are reflected in the multilingual interaction of the families. Using ethnographic participant observations and oral spontaneous multilingual production, our study attempts to describe how communication is managed through translanguaging practices among m...

Translanguaging is seen both as a threat and as an opportunity for minority language development and transmission. While the theme of translanguaging has been explored especially in a context of migration, the novelty of this study lies in its investigation of the multiple contexts in which translanguaging is examined. In order to understand the nature of translanguaging, we adopt a novel interdisciplinary approach and view it in all its complexity, including liminal spaces of linguistic landscape. Family language policy affects the home linguistic environment. Our purpose is to investigate language choices by multilingual Russian-speakers in Cyprus, Sweden and Estonia, immigrant and minority settings, and try to understand how they are reflected in the multilingual interaction of the families. Using ethnographic participant observations and oral spontaneous multilingual production, our study attempts to describe how communication is managed through translanguaging practices among m...

« On leur parle qu'en anglais ». Pratiques langagières et politique linguistique familiale : une étude ethnographique exploratoire menée dans une famille ghanéenne plurilingue. Quelques éléments de réflexion pour une linguistique du développement. Françoise Le Lièvre CODIRE EA 4643, Université de Nantes Licia, UCO Les travaux menés ces dernières années à propos de la transmission linguistique intergénérationnelle ont porté le plus souvent sur des situations familiales en contextes migratoires (Deprez, 1996) ou de mobilités. Les premiers travaux menés par Joshua Fishman (Fishman, 1991) ont proposé des modèles stables selon lesquels les langues sont distribuées dans des espaces donnés suivant des fonctions diverses. Dans ce domaine, l'intérêt des travaux de Bernard Spolsky (Spolsky, 2012, 2014) est d'avoir montré le rôle primordial joué par les familles, qui bien plus que l'école, fonctionne comme pivot central de la socialisation langagière. Bernard Spolsky s'est attaché à démontrer qu'il convient de reconnaître et de prendre en compte une multiplicité de facteurs aussi bien internes qu'externes qui, au sein même de chaque famille étudiée participe de formes de décisions-tant implicites qu'explicites-prises quant au maintien ou à la perte d'une langue, ce que Bernard Spolsky a qualifié de « politique linguistique familiale » (désormais PLF). Plus récemment, les travaux de Shahzaman Haque (Haque, 2010, 2012) ont permis, à leur tour, de dépasser le modèle des échelles fishamniennes de vitalité ethnolinguistique. En appliquant les outils de l'analyse ethnographique à l'étude de quatre familles indiennes ayant migré dans quatre pays européens différents Shahzaman Haque s'est intéressé aux causes, aux processus et aux dynamiques « réelles » du changement linguistique. Ses travaux comme d'autres (Cognini, 2011)-même si encore trop épars-ont apporté un éclairage nouveau quant à l'articulation complexe et dynamique entre ordre social, politiques linguistiques, idéologies et représentations langagières-macro et/ou micro-et pratiques langagières des familles. Dans cette approche, notre communication visera à présenter les résultats d'une enquête de type ethnographique menée à Accra entre 2016 et 2018 dans une famille avec laquelle nous entretenons des liens privilégiés. Dans cette fratrie, en plus de l'anglais, les locuteurs interagissent en différentes langues-Ewe, Twi, Ga-selon des modalités variables. A un moment où au Ghana comme dans d'autres pays africains (Gabon, Mozambique, Swaziland de ce que nous connaissons), des ruptures de transmission des langues autochtones au sein des familles sont de plus en plus fréquentes au profit d'un monolinguisme anglophone-ou francophone (Lemou, 2016)-nous avons souhaité mener un travail exploratoire « en immersion » dans une posture participante, empathique et attentive à nos enquêtés (Olivier de Sardan, 1995). Convaincue qu'au sein de la fratrie, les représentations des langues et leur(s) statut(s) jouent un rôle important dans les choix linguistiques opérés non seulement en termes de transmission mais aussi en termes de communication mono-, bi-ou plurilingue (Moore, 2001) notre projet était double. Dans un premier temps, il s'agissait, lors de discussions informelles, de tenter d'accéder aux représentations linguistiques des adultes – représentations envisagées comme socialement élaborées et partagées et participant de la construction sociale de la réalité concernant • d'une part, les différentes langues de la fratrie ; • et d'autre part, les modes de gestion des répertoires plurilingues des parents avec les enfants mais aussi des enfants entre eux. Des moments partagés avec les aînés lors de soirées familiales ont donné lieu, à notre invite, à verbalisation ou à productions graphiques (Molinié, 2009) quant aux représentations associées aux différentes langues présentes dans les répertoires langagiers des parents et des enfants. Même si les éléments recueillis dans un premier moment-« pré-construction » ou disponibilité sociale (Gajo, 2000)-, disent la primauté accordée à l'anglais tant dans les échanges parents-enfants, qu'enfants-enfants, les dires recueillis lors