1st Edition

Family Language Policies in a Multilingual World Opportunities, Challenges, and Consequences

Edited By John Macalister, Seyed Hadi Mirvahedi Copyright 2017
    254 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    254 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Through case studies from around the world, this book illustrates the opportunities and challenges facing families negotiating the issues of language maintenance and language learning in the home. Every family living in a bi/multilingual environment faces the question of what language(s) to speak with their children and must make a decision, consciously or otherwise, about these issues. Exploring links between language policy in the home and wider society in a range of diverse settings, the contributors utilize various research tools, including interviews, questionnaires, observations, and archival document analysis, to explore linguistic ideologies and practices of family members in the home, illuminating how these are shaped by macro-level societal processes.

    1. Beginnings John Macalister & Seyed Hadi Mirvahedi

    Part I: Challenges in Family Language Policy

    2. Family Language Policy: New Directions Cassie Smith-Christmas

    3. Family Language Policy for Deaf Children and the Vitality of New Zealand Sign Language Rachel McKee & Kirsten Smiler

    4. Family Language Practices as Emergent Policies in Child-Headed Households in Rural Uganda Maureen Kendrick & Elizabeth Namazzi

    5. Exploring Family Language policies Among Azerbaijani-Speaking Families in the City of Tabriz, Iran Seyed Hadi Mirvahedi

    6. The Role of the Zapotec Language from Lozoga’ in the Californian Migrant Community Daisy Bernal Lorenzo

    7. Adrift in an Anglophone World: Refugee Families’ Language Policy Challenges

    Diego Navarro & John Macalister

    PART II: Opportunities in Family Language Policy

    8. How Religious Ideologies and Practices Impact on Family Language Policy – Ethiopians in Wellington Melanie Revis

    9. "I speak all of the language!": Engaging in Family Language Policy Research with Multilingual Children in Montreal Alison Crump

    10. Dynamic Family Language Policy: Heritage Language Socialization and Strategic Accommodation in the Home Corinne Seals

    11. Language Ideologies, Social Capital, and Interaction Strategies: AN ethnogrpah8ic Case Study of Family Language Policy in Singapore Guangwei Hu & Li Ren

    PART III: Consequences for Family Language Policy

    12. Home: A Confluence of Discourses in Multilingual Linguistic Ecologies

    Seyed Hadi Mirvahedi & John Macalister

    Biography

    John Macalister is Associate Professor in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

    Seyed Hadi Mirvahedi is Lecturer at Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Iran.

    "An important contribution to the new studies that help understand why the family is such an important site for the study of language policy. This interesting collection of cases makes clear the complex external influences and internal beliefs (some probably mistaken) that influence language choice in the family and neighborhood."

    Bernard Spolsky, Professor Emeritus, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

    "Family language transmission is closely intertwined with social and political macro developments. By shaping language transmission, families themselves act as political players, (un)consciously opposing or following power relations. This volume on family language choice thus provides invaluable perspectives on potential balance and power shifts within the near future and in different contexts around the world."

    Katharina Brizić, Professor, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany