role of multilingualism in the construction of social identity in a high social class family

Abstract

This article explores the language ideologies and language practices of a multilingual, high socioeconomic status family, resident in the United Kingdom, from a critical sociolinguistic perspective (Heller, Pietikäinen and Pujolar, 2018). Drawn from a larger, longitudinal, multi-sited ethnographic study, it focuses on a predominantly Russian/British family of high socioeconomic status. The study concentrates on their daily rituals. Socialization moments are revealed, and the mechanisms and underpinning ideologies are analysed, drawing upon the approach of Goffman (1956). It explores how their language ideologies and practices may be deemed constitutive of a neoliberal self (Urciuoli, 2008), and how they create and present a cosmopolitan class identity. It makes a methodological contribution by demonstrating how ethnographic participant observation is valuable in FLP research. Such an approach enables an understanding of which ideologies are actually enacted through which practices in the face of acceptance, resistance or conflicting ideologies from other family members, and the other constraints of daily life.