{"title":"Exploring family language policymaking of internal migrant families in contemporary China: negotiating habitus, capital and the social field","authors":"Chang Wei, M. Gu, Lianjiang Jiang","doi":"10.1080/14664208.2021.2013062","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Drawing on semi-structured interviews with six Chinese migrant families with children aged 12–15 years old, this qualitative study uses a Bourdieusian lens to probe how the historically lived and migration experiences of Chinese internal migrant parents construct their paradoxical beliefs in children’s English learning and informs their family language practice. The discursive process of constructing family language policy (FLP) reveals how migrant parents negotiate between changing habitus and the newly acquired capital during migration to Shanghai. Findings indicate that the migrant parents acknowledge the value of English in the linguistic market and hold high expectations and aspirations of their children’s English education. However, their historically constructed language ideologies constrain their engagement in children’s English learning and hinder their FLP decision-making. The urban field’s prevailing social and educational norms of promoting children’s learning English as a foreign language to enhance cross-cultural communication and attain academic success has its transformative power, which enables migrant parents to adjust their understanding of English learning and encourages them to facilitate the same for their children at home. The present study proposes a theoretical model to conceptualise the FLP construction in internal migrant families. Implications of the findings for different stakeholders have been discussed.","PeriodicalId":51704,"journal":{"name":"Current Issues in Language Planning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2021-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current Issues in Language Planning","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2021.2013062","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
ABSTRACT Drawing on semi-structured interviews with six Chinese migrant families with children aged 12–15 years old, this qualitative study uses a Bourdieusian lens to probe how the historically lived and migration experiences of Chinese internal migrant parents construct their paradoxical beliefs in children’s English learning and informs their family language practice. The discursive process of constructing family language policy (FLP) reveals how migrant parents negotiate between changing habitus and the newly acquired capital during migration to Shanghai. Findings indicate that the migrant parents acknowledge the value of English in the linguistic market and hold high expectations and aspirations of their children’s English education. However, their historically constructed language ideologies constrain their engagement in children’s English learning and hinder their FLP decision-making. The urban field’s prevailing social and educational norms of promoting children’s learning English as a foreign language to enhance cross-cultural communication and attain academic success has its transformative power, which enables migrant parents to adjust their understanding of English learning and encourages them to facilitate the same for their children at home. The present study proposes a theoretical model to conceptualise the FLP construction in internal migrant families. Implications of the findings for different stakeholders have been discussed.
期刊介绍:
The journal Current Issues in Language Planning provides major summative and thematic review studies spanning and focusing the disparate language policy and language planning literature related to: 1) polities and language planning and 2) issues in language planning. The journal publishes four issues per year, two on each subject area. The polity issues describe language policy and planning in various countries/regions/areas around the world, while the issues numbers are thematically based. The Current Issues in Language Planning does not normally accept individual studies falling outside this polity and thematic approach. Polity studies and thematic issues" papers in this journal may be self-nominated or invited contributions from acknowledged experts in the field.