How stable is a family’s language policy? Multilingual families’ beliefs, practices, and management across time

IF 1.4 2区文学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Language Policy Pub Date : 2023-12-01 DOI:10.1007/s10993-023-09679-y

Ily Hollebeke

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Abstract

The dynamic nature of multilingual families and their language policies has been touched upon by numerous studies. Adding to the field, the present study assesses the stability of family language policy in a standardised and quantitative manner. To this end, a linguistically heterogenous sample consisting of 488 multilingual families raising young children in Belgium’s Flemish Community was surveyed twice, eighteen months apart. Based on the collected longitudinal survey data, the present study offers statistically verifiable evidence for the (partially) dynamic character of family language policy. Firstly, parental beliefs in a multilingual advantage were strengthened and a change was found in language-specific beliefs regarding children’s language acquisition. Secondly, the families’ practices demonstrate a shift towards the Dutch institutional language, particularly in parental language use when communicating with each other and with their child, and in the child’s overall exposure. The observed shift in practices and beliefs underscores not only parents’ continuous assessment of their children’s linguistic needs and development, but also the societal environment influencing this assessment and adjustment. However, while significant changes in language beliefs and practices were uncovered, the more conscious and explicit component of language management proved stable across time, corroborating the independent character of the three family language policy components.

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一个家庭的语言政策有多稳定?跨时代的多语言家庭的信仰、实践和管理

多语家庭及其语言政策的动态性质已被许多研究所触及。除外地外，本研究还以标准化和定量的方式评估家庭语言政策的稳定性。为此，对比利时佛兰德社区488个养育幼儿的多语种家庭进行了两次语言异质性调查，间隔18个月。本研究基于收集的纵向调查数据，为家庭语言政策的(部分)动态性提供了统计上可验证的证据。首先，父母关于多语优势的信念得到加强，而关于儿童语言习得的特定语言信念发生了变化。其次，这些家庭的实践表明，他们转向了荷兰的机构语言，特别是在父母之间以及与孩子交流时使用的语言，以及在孩子的整体接触方面。观察到的实践和信念的转变不仅强调了父母对孩子语言需求和发展的持续评估，而且还强调了影响这种评估和调整的社会环境。然而，虽然发现了语言信仰和实践的重大变化，但事实证明，随着时间的推移，语言管理中更有意识和更明确的组成部分是稳定的，这证实了三个家庭语言政策组成部分的独立性。

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来源期刊

Language Policy Multiple-

CiteScore

3.60

自引率

6.20%

发文量

期刊介绍： Language Policy is highly relevant to scholars, students, specialists and policy-makers working in the fields of applied linguistics, language policy, sociolinguistics, and language teaching and learning. The journal aims to contribute to the field by publishing high-quality studies that build a sound theoretical understanding of the field of language policy and cover a range of cases, situations and regions worldwide. A distinguishing feature of this journal is its focus on various dimensions of language educational policy. Language education policy includes decisions about which languages are to be used as a medium of instruction and/or taught in schools, as well as analysis of these policies within their social, ethnic, religious, political, cultural and economic contexts. The journal aims to continue its tradition of bringing together solid scholarship on language policy and language education policy from around the world but also to expand its direction into new areas. The editors are very interested in papers that explore language policy not only at national levels but also at the institutional levels of schools, workplaces, families, health services, media and other entities. In particular, we welcome theoretical and empirical papers with sound qualitative or quantitative bases that critically explore how language policies are developed at local and regional levels, as well as on how they are enacted, contested and negotiated by the targets of that policy themselves. We seek papers on the above topics as they are researched and informed through interdisciplinary work within related fields such as education, anthropology, politics, linguistics, economics, law, history, ecology, and geography. We particularly are interested in papers from lesser-covered parts of the world of Africa and Asia. Specifically we encourage papers in the following areas: Detailed accounts of promoting and managing language (education) policy (who, what, why, and how) in local, institutional, national and global contexts. Research papers on the development, implementation and effects of language policies, including implications for minority and majority languages, endangered languages, lingua francas and linguistic human rights; Accounts of language policy development and implementation by governments and governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations and business enterprises, with a critical perspective (not only descriptive). Accounts of attempts made by ethnic, religious and minority groups to establish, resist, or modify language policies (language policies ''from below''); Theoretically and empirically informed papers addressing the enactment of language policy in public spaces, cyberspace and the broader language ecology (e.g., linguistic landscapes, sociocultural and ethnographic perspectives on language policy); Review pieces of theory or research that contribute broadly to our understanding of language policy, including of how individual interests and practices interact with policy. We also welcome proposals for special guest-edited thematic issues on any of the topics above, and short commentaries on topical issues in language policy or reactions to papers published in the journal.