Young people without extensive knowledge of the family languages risk experiencing alienation and identity crises. This study focuses on two young people and their relationship to the family languages through life story interviews. The participants rate their own language skills low and share how it has affected their upbringing and identity. With the help of narrative theory and Bourdieu’s theoretical framework, the participants’ life stories are analyzed based on capital, habitus and general features of the narrative. The study shows that the two participants have thematic experiences in common, among other things the fear of saying the wrong thing, the support of family members, having a linguistic responsibility and a view on their language skills as lacking have been consistent in both life stories. However, the details of the individual stories have had different effects on the attitudes towards language and identity the participants have today. / Unga utan betydande kunskaper inom familjespråken riskerar att uppleva utanförskap och identitetskriser. Denna studie fokuserar på två ungdomar och deras relation till familjespråken genom livsberättelseintervjuer. Deltagarna värderar sina egna språkkunskaper lågt och berättar hur det har påverkat deras uppväxt och identitet. Med hjälp av Bourdieus teoretiska ramar och narrativ teori analyseras deltagarnas livberättelser utifrån kapital, habitus och generella drag i berättandet. Studien visar att de två deltagarna har tematiska upplevelser gemensamt, bland annat har rädslan att säga fel, familjemedlemmars stöd, att ha ett språkligt ansvar och ett bristperspektiv på språket varit genomgående i båda livsberättelseintervjuerna. Däremot har detaljerna i de individuella berättelserna haft olika påverkan på de attityder kring språk och identitet deltagarna har idag.

The aim of this study is to present the views of some English-speaking parents and their children based in Sweden on the relationship between language learning and family language policies. To this end, interviews were conducted with six families living in Sweden who had spoken English at home with their children. The data was analysed using a thematic approach, which involves a close analysis of the collected data. I specified major and common points from the participants that were in line with my research questions. The results showed that the participating parents wanted their children to be able to speak with their English-speaking relatives and therefore felt that it was important to teach and maintain English. They also mention how English is a useful language to know because it is spoken all around the world. Some parents point out that consistency is important for the child’s language development in English, while others explain how there is no need for strict rules because it can lead to a resistance in speaking English. The most common strategies the parents employ are one- parent-one-language strategy, encouraging watching TV and films, reading books, repetition- and minimal grasp strategy and mother tongue tuition. The children emphasise the importance of knowing English when they talk with their relatives. However, the children find it difficult when learning a third language in school because they are used to acquiring a language instead of consciously learning it. The implications from my research may potentially help policy makers, researchers, and bilingual families in the process of teaching and maintaining a language at home.

This thesis explores the family language policies (FLP) of two Somali-Swedish families living in Rinkeby, Stockholm. It focuses on the relationships between FLP and identity construction in different social spaces. It aims to address three main gaps in the FLP research in Sweden: in representation, methodology, and epistemological understandings of family, language, and policy. Most studies focus on families originating in the global North, which renders invisible the practices of families representing minoritized indigenous or immigrants – the South in the North. Moreover, few studies investigate FLP in interaction, resulting in a knowledge gap of FLP as practiced. In general, issues of power in relation to languages, social inequalities and status in society are barely present, yet, understanding relationships between linguistic practices and social structures at different scales seems crucial for understanding how language ideologies emerge and inform FLP. This study thus contributes to the field of FLP by investigating the language practices of two Somali-Swedish families, the language ideologies shaping these practices, as well as the everyday challenges they face in raising children multilingually. It uses an ethnographic design, drawing on interviews and fieldnotes, with attention to researcher positionality. Throughout, the thesis takes a decolonial stance, discussing how North-South entanglements are present in the interactions of marginalized populations and illuminating their experiences of struggle and oppression. Findings suggest that, for these families, FLP is an intentional act of maintaining the Somali language, although practices do not always align with this policy. Participants use in fact a broad linguistic repertoire in their interactions, constructing multiple identities in different spaces through their discursive practices, which are connected to their FLP. These practices are informed by ideologies on the importance of Somali in identity-building and in connecting people within the Somali diaspora, and by the supposed benefits of multilingualism. Participants report challenges in maintaining their FLP, such as the main role attributed to mothers in language maintenance, facing negative reactions to FLP from peers and society, and lack of institutional support. Results from this thesis contribute to redressing the identified gaps by researching participants’ own views on what is important for them and what challenges they face, an essential element for a decolonial approach. They also offer a critical perspective on multilingualism in FLP, locating language within southern perspectives. Results could also aid state actors working with Somali-Swedish families, enabling them to offer more focused support regarding raising multilingual children.

This thesis explores the family language policies (FLP) of two Somali-Swedish families living in Rinkeby, Stockholm. It focuses on the relationships between FLP and identity construction in different social spaces. It aims to address three main gaps in the FLPresearch in Sweden: in representation, methodology, and epistemological understandings of family, language, and policy. Most studies focus on families originating in the global North, which renders invisible the practices of families representing minoritized indigenous or immigrants – the South in the North. Moreover, few studies investigate FLP in interaction, resulting in a knowledge gap of FLP as practiced. In general, issues of power in relation to languages, social inequalities and status in society are barely present, yet, understanding relationships between linguistic practices and social structures at different scales seems crucial for understanding how language ideologies emerge and inform FLP. This study thus contributes to the field of FLP by investigating the language practices of two Somali-Swedish families, the language ideologies shaping these practices, as well as the everyday challenges they face in raising children multilingually. It uses an ethnographic design, drawing on interviews and fieldnotes, with attention to researcher positionality. Throughout, the thesis takes a decolonial stance, discussing how North-South entanglements are present in the interactions of marginalized populations and illuminating their experiences of struggle and oppression. Findings suggest that, for these families, FLP is an intentional act of maintaining the Somali language, although practices do not always align with this policy. Participants use in fact a broad linguistic repertoire in their interactions, constructing multiple identities in different spaces through their discursive practices, which are connected to their FLP. These practices are informed by ideologies on the importance of Somali in identity-building and in connecting people within the Somali diaspora, and by the supposed benefits of multilingualism. Participants report challenges in maintaining their FLP, such as the main role attributed to mothers in language maintenance, facing negative reactions to FLP from peers and society, and lack of institutional support. Results from this thesis contribute to redressing the identified gaps by researching participants’ own views on what is important for them and whatchallenges they face, an essential element for a decolonial approach. They also offer a critical perspective on multilingualism in FLP, locating language within southern perspectives. Results could also aid state actors working with Somali-Swedish families, enabling them to offer more focused support regarding raising multilingual children.

No description available.

This thesis presents a research of a family language management in four Czech-English families in Lancashire. Using in-depth semi-structured interviews, it examines various aspects of language ideology and language policy, language use, and the way of teaching and language acquisition of Czech language within the families. The first chapter introduces theoretical findings and essential ideas for the research. The second chapter describes the process of the research, provides information on the examined families, and presents the research questions. The third chapter describes the processing and analysis of interviews, and the fourth presents research results and answers the research questions. The aim of this thesis was to describe and analyse the mentioned aspects of family language management and based on this analysis show how the families approach bilingual education of their children.

Cette thèse de doctorat porte sur la première crèche parentale bilingue anglais-français établie dans la ville de Strasbourg, France. En utilisant une approche ethnographique, cette recherche examine le lien qui existe entre la politique linguistique identifiée et les facteurs sociaux. La problématique de recherche a été formulée ainsi : comment fonctionne une structure éducative bilingue dédiée à la petite enfance du point de vue des politiques linguistiques, quelles sont les implications du choix de la politique une personne, une langue (UPUL) sur les pratiques des acteurs éducatifs et des familles au sein de la crèche en question, et quel est le lien entre le bilinguisme déclaré de la structure et le multilinguisme des familles ? Enfin l’étude des choix de langues dans un contexte tel que celui de la petite enfance apporte-t-elle une compréhension nouvelle de la notion de politique linguistique éducative ? De plus, cet effort de recherche vise à combler une lacune dans les études de LP qui, dans une certaine mesure, sont concentrées soit sur le cadre familial, soit sur le cadre de l’éducation formelle. / This doctoral thesis focuses on the first parental English-French bilingual crèche established in the multilingual city of Strasbourg, France. Using an ethnographic approach, this research looks into the relationship of language policy with social factors. With the one person, one language (OPOL) policy as this ECEC setting’s identified language policy (LP), my aim is to understand its language policy processes. Primarily informed by Spolsky’s tripartite LP conceptualisation, I seek to analyse the following: the declared language policy or what the proponents say about how they manage languages; the perceived language policy or what they believe about OPOL; and the practiced language policy or what they do and how they implement the said LP. Moreover, following Johnson (2009), I also address the multilayered dimension of LP and look at the agents, goals, processes and discourses involved in the creation of this crèche. Moreover, this research endeavour aims to address a gap in LP studies that to a certain extent have focused on either family or formal educational settings.

This study investigates the impact of Family Language Policy (FLP) on the conservation of minority languages in Zimbabwe. Family language policy is a newly emerging sub field of language planning and policy which focuses on the explicit and overt planning in relation to language use within the home among family members. The study is therefore predicated on the view that the conservation of any minority language largely depends on intergenerational transmission of the particular language. Intergenerational transmission is dependent in part, on the language practices in the home and therefore on family language policy. To understand the nature, practice and negotiation of family language policy in the context of minority language conservation, the study focuses on the perspectives of a sample of 34 L1 Kalanga parents and 28 L1 Tonga parents, who form the main target population. In this study, parents are considered to be the ‘authorities’ within the family, who have the capacity to articulate and influence language use and language practices. Also included in this study are the perspectives of language and culture associations representing minority languages regarding their role in the conservation of minority languages at the micro community level. Representatives of Kalanga Language and Cultural Development Association (KLCDA), Tonga Language and Culture Committee (TOLACCO) as well Zimbabwe Indigenous Languages Promotion Association (ZILPA) were targeted. This research takes on a qualitative approach. Methodologically, the study deployed the interview as the main data collection tool. Semi structured interviews were conducted with L1 Kalanga and L1 Tonga parents while unstructured interviews were conducted with the representatives of language and culture associations. This study deploys the language management theory and the reversing language shift theory as the analytical lenses that enable the study to understand the mechanics of family language policy and their impact on intergenerational transmission of minority languages in Zimbabwe. Language management theory allows for the extendibility of the tenets of language policy into the family domain and specifically affords the study to explore the dialectics of parental language ideologies and family language practices in the context of minority language conservation in Zimbabwe. The reversing language shift theory also emphasises the importance of the home domain in facilitating intergenerational transmission of minority languages. Findings of the study demonstrate that family language policy is an important aspect in intergenerational transmission of minority languages, itself a nuanced and muddled process. The research demonstrates that there is a correlation between parental language ideologies and parental disposition to articulate and persue a particular kind of family language policy. In particular, the study identified a pro-minority home language and pro- bilingual family language policies as the major parental language ideologies driving family language policies. However, the research reveals that parental language ideologies and parental explicitly articulated family language polices alone do not guarantee intergenerational transmission of minority languages, although they are very pertinent. This, as the study argues, is because family language policy is not immune to external language practices such as the school language policy or the wider language policy at the macro state level. Despite parents being the main articulators of family language policy, the study found out that in some instances, parental ideologies do not usually coincide with children’s practices. The mismatch between parental preferences and their children’s language practices at home are a reproduction, in the home, of extra familial language practices. This impacts family language practices by informing the child resistant agency to parental family language policy, leading to a renegotiation of family language policy. The research also demonstrates that parents, especially those with high impact beliefs are disposed to take active steps, or to employ language management strategies to realise their desired language practices in the home. The study demonstrates that these parental strategies may succeed in part, particularly when complemented by an enabling sociolinguistic environment beyond the home. The articulation of a pro-Tonga only family language policy was reproduced in the children’s language practices, while the preference for a pro- bilingual family language policy by the majority L1 Kalanga parents was snubbed for a predominantly Ndebele-only practice by their children. In most cases, the research found out that language use in formal domains impacted on the success of FLP. Tonga is widely taught in Schools within Binga districts while Kalanga is not as widespread in Bulilima and Mangwe schools. Ndebele is the most widespread language in Bulilima and Mangwe schools. As such; children of L1 Kalanga parents tend to evaluate Kalanga negatively while having positive associations with Ndebele. All these language practices are deemed to impact on family language policy and therefore on intergenerational transmission of minority languages in Zimbabwe. The desire by parents for the upward mobility of children results in them capitulating to the wider socio political reality and therefore to the demands of their children in terms of language use in the home. The study therefore concludes that family language policy is an important frontier in the fight against language shift and language endangerment, given the importance of the home in intergenerational transmission of minority languages. The study therefore implores future research to focus on this very important but largely unresearched sub field of language policy. The study observes that most researches have focused on the activities of larger state institutions and organisations and how they impact on minority language conservation, to the detriment of the uncontestable fact that the survival of any language depends on the active use of the language by the speakers. The research also recommends that future practice of language policy should not attempt to promote minority languages by discouraging the use of other majority languages, but rather, speakers should embrace bilingualism as a benefit and a resource and not as a liability. The interaction between the top down state language policy and the bottom up micro family language policy should be acknowledged and exploited, in such a way that the two can be deployed as complementary approaches in minority language conservation. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Languages, Linguistics and Literature)

Notre questionnement autour des politiques linguistiques familiales au sein des familles plurilingues vivant dans l’environnement multilingue et multiculturel luxembourgeois est motivé par le trilinguisme qui caractérise le Luxembourg, la forte mixité de la population, l’intérêt que suscite les questions linguistiques des enfants issus de l’immigration et scolarisés au Luxembourg ainsi que notre expérience personnelle avec les langues au quotidien. À cet effet, nous cherchons à comprendre comment les parents issus de divers socles linguistiques ou ayant la même langue d’origine communiquent entre eux avant la naissance des enfants et comment la naissance des enfants reconfigure les usages linguistiques familiaux. Entre autres, nous cherchons à comprendre les motivations des choix linguistiques parentaux, les stratégies de communication mises en place par les parents pour établir un climat de communication en famille et l’influence des enfants sur l’environnement linguistique familial. Pour ce faire, sur le plan méthodologique, en couplant les entretiens ethnographiques avec les enregistrements des conversations familiales, nous avons eu accès aux pratiques linguistiques déclarées et effectives de dix familles aux profils linguistiques très variés et dont la résidence des parents au Luxembourg varie entre sept et quarante-deux ans. La méthodologie de l’analyse de contenu nous a permis de comprendre que l’expérience migratoire de chaque parent, les conditions d’acquisition/d’apprentissage et d’utilisation des langues qu’offre l’environnement luxembourgeois et le désir de développer le capital linguistique des enfants sont certaines des raisons qui poussent les parents à adopter une attitude positive envers le plurilinguisme. Plus loin, nos résultats suggèrent que bien que les enfants ne participent pas activement aux prises des décisions sur les choix des langues à véhiculer en famille, ils exercent cependant une influence sur l’environnement linguistique familial. Dans la même lignée, nous avons découvert que dès les premiers contacts des enfants avec des langues autres que celles de la famille, ces enfants ont tendance à avoir une préférence pour les langues dominantes de l’extérieur. En outre, nos résultats suggèrent qu’il n’y a pas de stratégie de communication parentale standard pour la transmission des langues familiales, mais que dans chaque famille, en fonction des objectifs que les parents se sont fixés, ces derniers peuvent adopter diverses stratégies face aux usages linguistiques de leurs enfants. En somme, nos travaux ouvrent de nouvelles pistes de recherche en politiques linguistiques familiales dont la dimension éducative des enfants issus de l’immigration nous semble particulièrement importante. / The importance of investigating the family language policies within multilingual families living in Luxembourg is primarily based the trilingualism that characterizes Luxembourg, the heterogeneity of its population, problems faced by immigrant children schooling in Luxembourg’s school and individual’s personal experience with everyday language use as well. Hence, this thesis’s aim is to investigate how parents from different linguistic backgrounds or having the same language of origin communicated with each other prior to the birth of their children and how the birth of these children reshapes the family language environment. Specifically, we aim to understand the parents’ motivations with regard to their language choices and the communication strategies they implement in order to establish a family communication environment. In addition, considering the effects of language contact, we focus on the school languages and their influence on the children’s language at home. In order to achieve this, from a methodological point of view, by combining ethnographic interviews with the recordings of a family conversation, we gained access to the declared and real linguistic practices of ten families with highly diverse linguistic profiles. These families reside between seven and forty-two years in Luxembourg. Further, content analysis was used to examine the migratory experience of each parent. Some of the major reasons why parents adopted a positive attitude towards multilingualism were (a) the language learning and use opportunities offered by Luxembourg and (b) the desire to develop the linguistic capital of their children. Our results later suggest that although children do not participate actively in the language use decision-making process they actively influence the family language environment. Because the languages they learn in school impact the ways in which they speak at home. Moreover, we discovered that once these children have contact with the officially recognised languages in Luxembourg, which might be different from that of the family, they tend to shift their preference towards these dominant languages. In addition, we discovered that there is no standard parental communication strategy for passing the family languages on to the children. Rather, depending on the parents' objectives, they can adopt different strategies. Overall, this thesis opens new perspectives for research that investigates the family language policies of multilingual families byhighlighting the relevance of educational dimensions of children with immigrant backgrounds. / Die Relevanz der Untersuchung der Sprachenpolitik von mehrsprachigenFamilien im Großherzogtum Luxemburg gründet sich vor allem auf die vorhandene Dreisprachigkeit als einzigartiges Charakteristikum von Luxemburg, die gesellschaftliche Heterogenität, die schulischen Probleme von Kindern mit Migrationshintergrund, sowie auf die individuelle Sprachnutzung von Personen im Alltag. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es daher zu untersuchen in wie fern die Geburt eines Kindes und der Austausch mit den eigenen Kindern den Sprachgebrauch von Eltern mit unterschiedlichen Herkunftssprachen beeinflusst. Ein großes Interesse galt dabei insbesondere der Untersuchung der persönlichen Motive der Eltern bezüglich der Auswahl von Sprachen und der Entwicklung dazugehöriger familiärer Kommunikationsstrategien. Zusätzlich wurde der schulische Sprachkontakt der Kinder betrachtet sowie dessen Einfluss auf den Sprachgebrauch der Kinder zuhause untersucht. Die Kombination von ethnographischen Interviews und Tonaufzeichnungen von Gesprächen der Familien zuhause ermöglichte die Gegenüberstellung des explizit angegebenen und des tatsächlichen Sprachgebrauchs von zehn Familien mit äußerst vielfältigen Sprachprofilen. Zum Zeitpunkt der Untersuchung wohnten diese Familien zwischen sieben und 42 Jahre in Luxemburg. Darüber hinaus wurde eine qualitative Inhaltsanalyse durchgeführt, um die Migrationserfahrungen beider Elternteile genauer zu beleuchten. Die Hauptgründe, welche zu einer Entwicklung einer positiven Einstellung der Eltern gegenüber Mehrsprachigkeit geführt haben, waren demnach (a) das (eigene) Erlernen der Sprachen und die Möglichkeiten zum vielfältigen Einsatz dieser Sprachen in Luxemburg sowie (b) ihr Wunsch sich das sprachliche Repertoire ihrer Kinder anzueignen. Unsere Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die Sprachen der Kinder, welche sie in der Schule gelernt haben einen Einfluss auf den familiären Sprachgebrauch haben, obwohl die Kinder keine aktive Rolle im Entscheidungsprozess bezüglich der familiären Sprachennutzung trugen. Des Weiteren konnte gezeigt werden, dass der Kontakt mit den offiziellen Sprachen in Luxemburgs Schulen dazu führte, dass Kinder eine Präferenz für diese dominanteren Sprachen entwickelten, selbst wenn die Familie eine andere Sprache spricht. Bezüglich des von denEltern initiierten Sprachenlernens konnten keine standardisierten Kommunikationsstrategien festgestellt werden. Vielmehr scheint es so, dass verschiedene Strategien in Abhängigkeit der individuellen Ziele der Eltern angepasst werden können. Insgesamt zeigt diese Arbeit neue Perspektiven zur Erforschung der familiären Sprachenpolitik in mehrsprachigen Familien auf, indem die Bedeutung der Bildungsinstitutionen in den Vordergrund gestellt wird.

Heritage languages are increasingly seen as a source of important insight in linguistics. Latvian has a long and under-researched history as a heritage language, with a heterogenous community of heritage speakers from two waves of migration in many countries including Sweden. A qualitative case study of a small written corpus identifies and analyses the key divergences in heritage Latvian in texts by nine preadolescent children that attend the complementary Latvian community school in Stockholm. Self-reported background information on language practices by study participants and their parents is used to estimate and compare their heritage language exposure level. This composite measure helps to evaluate the vulnerability of various areas of grammar to reduced language input. The observed language changes are analysed in the context of a recent study on Latvian language change in second-generation post-war immigrants to Sweden, earlier findings of contact-induced change in heritage Latvian in the USA as well as common features identified in other heritage languages. Changes attested in texts by several study participants and in previous studies are likely to point to common features of heritage Latvian. Recognition of their language as a heritage variety of Latvian can facilitate language maintenance efforts in the language community. / Arvsspråken ses alltmer som en källa till viktiga insikter inom språkvetenskap. Lettiskan har en lång och underutforskad historia som arvsspråk, med en heterogen gemenskap av kulturarvstalare från två migrationsvågor i många länder, inklusive Sverige. En kvalitativ fallstudie av en liten skriftlig korpus identifierar och analyserar de viktigaste avvikelserna i lettiska som arvsspråk i texter av nio barn i förpubertal ålder vilka alla går i den lettiska lördagsskolan i Stockholm. Självrapporterad bakgrundsinformation om språkbruk av studiedeltagarna och deras föräldrar används för att uppskatta och jämföra deras kontaktnivå med arvsspråket. Denna sammansatta indikator används för att utvärdera hur stor påverkan den minskade kontakten med språket har på olika grammatiska funktioner. De observerade språkförändringarna analyseras mot bakgrund av en nyligen genomförd studie om språkförändringar i lettiskan hos andra generationens efterkrigsinvandrare i Sverige, med en tidigare studie i USA om kontaktinducerade arvsspråksförändringar samt med gemensamma drag som identifierats i andra arvsspråk. Förändringar som observerats i flera av studiedeltagarnas texter och i tidigare studier pekar sannolikt på gemensamma drag i det lettiska arvsspråket. Om arvsspråket erkänns som en variant av lettiskan skulle det underlätta möjligheterna att underhålla språket i diasporans gemenskaper. / Etniskā mantojuma valodām lingvistikā tiek pievērsta arvien lielāka uzmanība. Latviešu valodai kā mantojuma valodai ir gara un maz pētīta vēsture. Saistībā ar vairākiem migrācijas viļņiem latviešu valoda ir mantojuma valoda daudzās pasaules valstīs, tai skaitā arī Zviedrijā. Šis pētījums veikts ar kvalitatīvu gadījuma analīzes metodi, izmantojot maza apjoma rakstveida teksta korpusu. Deviņu Stokholmas latviešu papildskolas audzēkņu rakstu darbos konstatētas un tālāk analizētas tipiskākās izmaiņas mantojuma latviešu valodā. Pētījuma dalībnieku un to vecāku sniegtās ziņas par valodu lietojumu izmantotas, lai novērtētu un salīdzinātu katra dalībnieka mantojuma valodas saskarsmes līmeni. Šis saliktais rādītājs palīdz novērtēt, cik lielu ietekmi uz dažādiem latviešu gramatikas moduļiem atstāj samazināta saskarsme ar latviešu valodu. Novērotās valodas izmaiņas tiek salīdzinātas ar rezultātiem nesenā pētījumā, kas analizē latviešu valodas izmaiņas otrās paaudzes pēckara imigrācijā Zviedrijā, kā arī ar senāku ASV latviešu valodas pētījumu un vispārējām etniskā mantojuma valodai raksturīgām pazīmēm. Izmaiņas, kas novērotas vairāku pētījuma dalībnieku darbos un iepriekšējos pētījumos, iespējams, norāda uz kopīgām iezīmēm, kas raksturīgas latviešu valodai kā mantojuma valodai. Izpratne par etniskā mantojuma valodu kā vienu no latviešu valodas paveidiem var palīdzēt uzturēt latviešu valodu diasporas valodas kopienās.