{"title":"Family Language Policies of Vietnamese–Australian Families","authors":"Van H. Tran, Sarah Verdon, S. Mcleod, Cen Wang","doi":"10.1055/s-0042-1743490","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study aimed to investigate reported family language policies (quy tắc sử dụng ngôn ngữ cho gia đình) and language maintenance practices among Vietnamese–Australian parents. This mixed-methods study collected 151 Vietnamese–Australian parents' responses to close- and open-ended questions within an online questionnaire that was available both in English and Vietnamese. Bivariate analyses and logistic regression were conducted to explore associations between family language policies and factors related to demographics and Spolsky's language policy theory. Content analysis was undertaken in NVivo to investigate family language policies. One-third of the participants (35.6%) reported to have a family language policy and 72.5% of those with a policy indicated that they consistently implemented their policy. Significant factors associated with having a family language policy were parents' higher Vietnamese proficiency, more Vietnamese language use with their children, and intention of future residence in Vietnam. The four identified language policies were as follows: (1) using Vietnamese with the nuclear family (FLP1), (2) Vietnamese outside the nuclear family (FLP2), (3) English at home (FLP3), and (4) English outside the home (FLP4). Some families used more than one of these concurrently. This is one of the first large-scale mixed-method studies to explore family language policies, and the first to explore this issue with Vietnamese-speaking families in Australia. Many Vietnamese–Australian families do not explicitly have a family language policy aimed at maintaining Vietnamese at home; therefore, the Vietnamese–Australian community is at risk of a shift toward English language dominance and home language loss. As a result, the benefits of multilingualism within the Vietnamese–Australian community may be lost without support from the government and community to maintain their home language.","PeriodicalId":41283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Child Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"7","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Child Science","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1743490","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"PEDIATRICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 7
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate reported family language policies (quy tắc sử dụng ngôn ngữ cho gia đình) and language maintenance practices among Vietnamese–Australian parents. This mixed-methods study collected 151 Vietnamese–Australian parents' responses to close- and open-ended questions within an online questionnaire that was available both in English and Vietnamese. Bivariate analyses and logistic regression were conducted to explore associations between family language policies and factors related to demographics and Spolsky's language policy theory. Content analysis was undertaken in NVivo to investigate family language policies. One-third of the participants (35.6%) reported to have a family language policy and 72.5% of those with a policy indicated that they consistently implemented their policy. Significant factors associated with having a family language policy were parents' higher Vietnamese proficiency, more Vietnamese language use with their children, and intention of future residence in Vietnam. The four identified language policies were as follows: (1) using Vietnamese with the nuclear family (FLP1), (2) Vietnamese outside the nuclear family (FLP2), (3) English at home (FLP3), and (4) English outside the home (FLP4). Some families used more than one of these concurrently. This is one of the first large-scale mixed-method studies to explore family language policies, and the first to explore this issue with Vietnamese-speaking families in Australia. Many Vietnamese–Australian families do not explicitly have a family language policy aimed at maintaining Vietnamese at home; therefore, the Vietnamese–Australian community is at risk of a shift toward English language dominance and home language loss. As a result, the benefits of multilingualism within the Vietnamese–Australian community may be lost without support from the government and community to maintain their home language.
本研究旨在调查已报道的家庭语言政策(quy tắc sử dụng ngôn ngữ cho gia djình)和越南-澳大利亚父母的语言维护实践。这项混合方法研究收集了151名越南裔和澳大利亚裔父母对英语和越南语在线问卷中的封闭式和开放式问题的回答。采用双变量分析和逻辑回归方法探讨了家庭语言政策与人口统计和斯波尔斯基语言政策理论相关因素之间的关系。NVivo进行了内容分析,以调查家庭语言政策。三分之一的参与者(35.6%)报告有家庭语言政策,72.5%的参与者表示他们一贯执行政策。与制定家庭语言政策相关的重要因素是父母的越南语水平更高,子女更多地使用越南语,以及未来在越南居住的意愿。已确定的四项语言政策如下:(1)在核心家庭中使用越南语(FLP1),(2)核心家庭以外的越南语(FL P2),(3)在家英语(FLP3),以及(4)在家外英语(FLP4)。一些家庭同时使用了不止一个。这是第一个探索家庭语言政策的大规模混合方法研究之一,也是第一个与澳大利亚讲越南语的家庭探讨这一问题的研究。许多越南人-澳大利亚家庭没有明确的家庭语言政策,旨在将越南人留在家中;因此,越南-澳大利亚社区面临着向英语主导地位转变和母语丧失的风险。因此,如果没有政府和社区的支持来维持其母语,越澳社区使用多种语言的好处可能会丧失。