The role of schools in family multilingualism
Today many children grow up in multilingual families where they use two or more languages on an everyday basis. Families create their own family multilingualism. It involves explicit and implicit processes at home by family members that shape language and literacy use, language learning, maintenance and loss[i]. Family multilingualism does not only have linguistic, but also socio-emotional and other cognitive outcomes in children[ii].
But a multitude of influences outside the family may play a role in how families think about, practice and manage their languages at home[iii].One key influencer is the school[iv]. In this blogpost, we look at three issues that multilingual families face when their children attend predominantly monolingual schools.
While reading this post, it is important to keep in mind that every family is unique. They create and make sense of their family multilingualism in their own ways[v]. Different families have different needs, visions, opportunities and resources to support both heritage languages and the language of schooling. This blogpost presents no rights or wrongs, but summarises some key issues multilingual families encounter.
The language of schooling becoming a part of family languages
One often hears concerns about how children will learn the language of schooling once another language is spoken at home. But in fact, research documents an increased use of the language of schooling at home once children start attending school[vi]. One way or another, and to differing extents, but the language of schooling very often becomes part of the linguistic repertoires of multilingual families. This happens through informal and formal processes.
For example, siblings might start speaking the language of schooling with each other and with friends at home, and in some cases, they might even stop speaking family language(s)[vii]. Or parents, wishing to support their children in schooling, might increasingly take up activities that support the language of schooling also at home. For instance, they take advice from school practitioners and help children in school tasks or look for a tutor to do so[viii].
Mixed feelings and dilemmas about how to sustain family languages
When faced with monolingual norms, demands and preferences of schools, children and parents may develop mixed feelings about using their languages. For example, children might start associating negative emotions such as embarrasment or shame to speaking their home languages at school[ix].
When in a new country, parents are often in dilemma about which languages to support, in what ways, to what extent and what opportunities they have in so doing[x]. They make choices based on what resources are available, and what importance and usefulness they assign to languages in a new environment[xi]. They think about how to support….
¤The inclusion of children in a new society
¤Future prospects for children, such as employment or mobility
¤Family connections and bonding with family members at home and abroad
¤Feeling connected to heritage culture and ethnic/cultural/linguistic identity
¤Language competences as a cognitive benefit[xii]
In fact, parents and children often do not pick just one goal and one language, but develop competence in many[xiii]. Yet in the absense of actively promoting or valuing heritage languages in schools and society, families often have less opportunities to practice and develop family languages beyond the home context. This may lead to a language shift, the increased use of the dominant language of schooling, that may contribute to mixed emotions, communication issues, and eventually, language loss within the larger family [xiv].
Separate worlds? Family languages for the home, language of schooling for the school
Another response to the changing language scenario is trying to preserve the family context only for family languages, and school for the language of schooling[xv]. In these cases, we often see parents and children taking up extraordinary efforts, and a significant investment of their own time, emotions, finances, resources and networks to stay in contact and practice their family languages[xvi]. This may happen through heritage language tutoring, attending community language schools, socialising with members of the same language community, organising frequent visits or summer camps in the home country and so on.
The larger family also plays a role here. While siblings often switch to the language of schooling between each other, older siblings can also maintain and model the use of family languages to younger ones[xvii]. Other family members like grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins and so on also contribute to sustaining heritage languages. By spending time together and engaging in both formal heritage language teaching, and informal social activities, family members form a bond and develop children’s heritage language skills at the same time[xviii].
Conclusion
Can we think of a school system that supports families in maintaining their languages while developing the language of schooling too? Can we think of a system in which schools and families both work towards children’s multilingual development? Well, many of us can. Stay tuned for the next blog post which will tell about how teachers can support multilingualism in the classroom!
This blog post is part of the Co-Lingual-S project and is written by Nikolett Szelei, based on selected literature.
Bibliography
[i] Fogle, L. W.(2013). Parental ethnotheoriesand family language policy in transnational adoptive families. Language Policy, 12(1), 83-102;King, K. A., Fogle, L., & Logan‐Terry, A.(2008). Family language policy. Language and Linguistics Compass, 2(5), 907-922.
[ii] Hollebeke, I., Struys, E., & Agirdag, O. (2020). Can family language policy predict linguistic, socio-emotional and cognitive child and family outcomes? A systematic review. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-32.
[ii] Spolsky, B. (2012). Family language policy–the critical domain. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(1), 3-11.
[iv] Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2020). Educating migrant children in England: language and educational practices in home and school environments. International Multilingual Research Journal, 14(2), 163-180; Smith-Christmas, C. (2017). Family language policy: New directions. In J. Macalister and S.H. Mirvahedi (Eds.), Family Language Policies in a Multilingual World (pp. 23-39). New York: Routledge.
[v] King, K., & Lanza, E. (2019). Ideology, agency, and imagination in multilingual families: An introduction. International Journal of Bilingualism, 23(3), 717-723.
[vi] Little, S. (2020). Whose heritage? What inheritance?: Conceptualising family language identities. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(2), 198-212; Kaveh, Y. M., & Lenz, A. (2022). “I’m embarrassed and scared to speak a different language”: The complex language beliefs and emotions of bi/multilingual children of immigrants in monolingual US schools. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-18.
[vii] Little, S. (2020), ibid; Gharibi, K., & Mirvahedi, S. H. (2021). ‘You are Iranian even if you were born on the moon’: family language policies of the Iranian diaspora in the UK. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-16.
[viii] Bezcioglu-Göktolga, I., & Yagmur, K. (2018). The impact of Dutch teachers on family language policy of Turkish immigrant parents. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 31(3), 220-234; Masson, M., Antony-Newman, M., & Antony-Newman, M. (2022). The immigrant perspective: Eastern-European parental discourses about the value of French, plurilingualism and plurilingual literacy practices. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1-14.
[ix] Kaveh & Lenz (2022), Ibid.
[x] Curdt-Christiansen, X. L., & Lanza, E. (2018). Language management in multilingual families: Efforts, measures and challenges. Multilingua, 37(2), 123-130.
[xi]Curdt-Christiansen, X. L., & Wang, W. (2018). Parents as agents of multilingual education: Family language planning in China. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 31(3), 235-254.; Kirsch, C. (2012). Ideologies, struggles and contradictions: An account of mothers raising their children bilingually in Luxembourgish and English in Great Britain. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 15(1), 95-112; Kirsch, C., & Gogonas, N. (2018). Transnational experiences, language competences and worldviews: contrasting language policies in two recently migrated Greek families in Luxembourg. Multilingua, 37(2), 153-175.
[xii] Curdt-Christiansen & Wang (2018), Ibid; Gharibi, K., & Mirvahedi, S. H. (2021). ‘You are Iranian even if you were born on the moon’: family language policies of the Iranian diaspora in the UK. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-16. Gu, M. M., & Han, Y. (2021). Exploring family language policy and planning among ethnic minority families in Hong Kong: Through a socio-historical and processed lens. Current Issues in Language Planning, 22(4), 466-486. Guardado, M., & Becker, A. (2014). ‘Glued to the family’: the role of familism in heritage language development strategies. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 27(2), 163-181. Kirsch (2012), Ibid; Kirsch & Gogonas (2018), Ibid; Piller, I., & Gerber, L. (2021). Family language policy between the bilingual advantage and the monolingual mindset. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 24(5), 622-635.
[xiii] Jang, S. Y. (2020). The pluralist language ideology of Korean immigrant mothers and the English-only principle in early childhood education programs. Language and Education, 34(1), 66-80.
[xiv] Dekeyser, G. & Agirdag, O. (2021) Determinants of emotional language use preferences of ethnolinguistic minority children in Antwerp, Belgium. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 24(6), 892-908. Jang (2020), Ibid; Verhaeghe, F., Van Avermaet, P., & Derluyn, I. (2022). Meanings attached to intergenerational language shift processes in the context of migrant families. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(1), 308-326.
[xv] Curdt-Christiansen & Lanza (2018), Ibid; Gharibi & Mirvahedi (2021), Ibid; Masson et al. (2022), Ibid.
[xvi] Gharibi & Mirvahedi (2021), Ibid; Guardado & Becker (2014), Ibid; Little (2020); Masson et al. (2022), Ibid.
[xvii] Little (2020), Ibid.
[xviii] Guardado & Becker (2014), Ibid; Little (2020), Ibid; Melo-Pfeifer, S. (2015). The role of the family in heritage language use and learning: Impact on heritage language policies. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18(1), 26-44.