Family Language Policy: A Multi-level Investigation of Multilingual Practices in Transnational Families

This proposed study aims to explore what types of Family Language Policy (FLP) exist in the UK at the national level, how FLP is shaped, established, and implemented at the community level, and what practices are managed and how they are negotiated at the family level. We define FLP as both explicit and implicit language planning in relation to language choice and literacy practices within home domains and among family members. The project employs a MULTI-LEVEL, MULTI-COMMUNITY, and MULTI-TYPE family design and involves non-transnational and transnational families across three ethnolinguistic communities - Chinese, Polish and Somali. The 'multi'-approaches to studying FLP will make our research cutting edge, timely, innovative and interdisciplinary. Building on studies from language socialisation, literacy studies, language policy and migration, the multi-interdisciplinary approach will enable us to extend and challenge the existing conceptual tools to study language maintenance, multilingualism and social cohesion. As the first systematic study of FLP in the UK, it will provide us with both depth and breadth to understand the decision-making processes of FLP.
FLP addresses children's multilingual development in three interrelated aspects: language ideology, language practices and language management.
Through a comparative lens, this project will reveal the similarities and differences of FLP in relation to sociocultural changes, linguistic development and migration history in three diasporic communities. To understand how FLP is embedded in the broader sociopolitical context, we aim to:
1)Examine how mobility and on-going changes in sociocultural contexts impact on family language policies;
2)Understand how FLP is shaped, established and enacted in day-to-day interactional and digital practices;
3)Identify similarities and differences in FLP across three transnational communities;
4)Generate new knowledge by locating FLP as a field of inquiry;
5)Inform policy makers at different levels - national, educational, community and family - about the role of FLP.
The study employs a multi-level design and an interdisciplinary approach to understand the actual language practices and the decision-making processes of intergenerational language transmission.
At the national level, a survey will be distributed to all types of families with multilingual experiences. The data will yield much needed information on changes of perspective about multilingualism in the current UK. At the community level, community profiles will be constructed through focus group interviews and an event survey. A family language audit survey will also be conducted to map the 'who, what, why and how' of FLP. At the family level, ethnographic fieldwork will be carried out in 6-8 families in each community to collect audio recordings of 'live' events, interviews, and digital communications. The data will capture ideological positions, FLP dimensions and critical moments of parental decisions.
We choose Chinese, Polish and Somali communities because they represent three distinguished linguistic and sociopolitical groups - Asian, European and African, with different migration histories and cultural-religious practices. Involving different types of families is necessary because migration in these ethnolinguistic communities often involves members of extended family who are key agents in cultural and linguistic socialization. The profiles of the families and communities will make visible the relationships between private domains and the public sphere and reveal the conflicts that families negotiate between the realities of social pressure, education demands, and the desire for cultural-linguistic continuity.
We use 'looking back' and 'looking forward' methods to identify the critical elements of FLP. These decisive insights will inform policy makers at different levels of the role of FLP in multilingual development, social cohesion and children's wellbeing.

Who will benefit from this research?

The FLP project will have both academic collaborators and non-academic advisors and members from associated organization whose extensive knowledge and experiences can shed light on what types of FLP promote or discourage multilingual development, what kind of sociocultural and linguistic milieu in communities support social cohesion and identity construction, and what policies at educational and national levels provide conducive environments for heritage language maintenance and literacy development. The beneficiaries are both institutions, such as families, schools, and research institutes, and individuals, such as practitioners and teachers. Importantly, the public at large will gain new understanding of the benefits and value of multilingualism. The outcomes, presented through media/TV interviews, social media, presentations at parent-teacher meetings and other public gatherings, may change the views of the public on raising multilingual children and also alter the deficit views sometimes held on speakers of minority languages .
Specifically, outcomes of the research will be of value to (i) policy makers, (ii) professional practitioners, such as teachers and other school personnel, community leaders/practitioners, and (iii) multilingual and transnational families.
How will they benefit from this research?

1.VALUE TO POLICY MAKERS. The substantially and comprehensively collected datasets, systematically analysed data and empirically based findings from this research will benefit both national and local policy makers by presenting strong evidence-based results. The research findings will be disseminated to policy makers and policy-making institutions at various levels, including the Department of Education, ICC- the International Language Association and The National Resource Centre for Supplementary Schools. The final project report will be distributed to these institutions through our academic and professional networks as well as our advisory committee members who will use their political insight to ensure that the dissemination of the findings is carefully targeted.

2.VALUE TO PROFESSIONAL PRACTITIONERS. Both mainstream and heritage language school teachers/personnel, family counsellors, speech and language therapists and community leaders/practitioners, will be invited to workshops, seminars and an engagement event. These activities will demonstrate the multilingual advantages in socioeconomic advancement and also show how bilingual education leads to better academic performance, cognitive gains, and social cohesion. In particular, the participants will become aware how their professional advice and practices may affect the everyday lives of transnational families.

3.VALUE TO MULTILINGUAL & TRANSNATIONAL FAMILIES. The evidence gathered from the project will raise their awareness and understanding of the value in multilingual practices in private domains with regard to socioeconomic gains, cognitive benefits, and emotional ties. Importantly, the results will empower them in raising their awareness of their rights and obligations in the community and wider society in terms of protecting cultural and linguistic diversity, maintaining social cohesion and asserting their identities. Caretakers will benefit from intervention workshops conducted in community centres, libraries, and heritage language schools. These include discourse strategies, reading sessions in minority languages, drop-in sessions, etc.

4.VALUE TO THE PUBLIC. The public at large will also benefit. The findings will raise awareness of the socio-cognitive benefits of multilingual development, and increase sociocultural tolerance and respect for linguistic diversity. The dissemination in social media will be carefully channelled with links between the research website and various associations' websites. Findings will be posted in different languages, culminating in downloadable flyers and brochures.