ERIC Number: EJ1475935
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jun
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1568-4555
EISSN: EISSN-1573-1863
Available Date: 2024-09-08
Family Language Policy and Parental Language Ideologies among Chinese Transnational Families in Multilingual Luxembourg
Language Policy, v24 n2 p297-320 2025
This paper explores family multilingualism through the lens of language ideologies upheld by parents within three Chinese transnational families living in Luxembourg. Following a linguistic ethnographic approach throughout the inquiry and analysis process, this study provides illuminating insights into the Chinese parents' language ideologies regarding their children's multilingualism in relation to multiple languages (i.e. Chinese, Luxembourgish, German, French and English) across various domains (e.g. family, mainstream schools and public linguistic space). Our findings indicate that diverse factors and rationales giving rise to these parental ideologies operate in a dynamic, interrelated way within mechanisms that integrate cognitive, social and discursive aspects. As such, parental language ideologies embody a mosaic of various cognitive constructs, shaped by varying dimensions and degrees of negotiation between human agency, social structures and discursive dynamics. This study argues that the parents' sense- and decision-making of their children's multilingualism arises within a globally, English-dominated, linguistic hierarchy, wherein the market-driven tendency has led to language commodification in a bid to maximise profits. The present paper makes an important contribution to advancing our knowledge about parents' roles as policymakers in engaging in family language decisions and children's language development within a transnational, highly multilingual context--Luxembourg--which involves three official, schooling languages on a nationwide scale.
Descriptors: Language Usage, Second Language Learning, Native Language, Language Attitudes, Family Relationship, Chinese, German, French, English (Second Language), Indo European Languages, Ethnography, Parent Attitudes, Parent Child Relationship, Cognitive Processes, Decision Making, Multilingualism, Commercialization
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link.springer.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1University of Strasbourg, Research group 1339 LiLPa (Linguistique, Langues, Parole), Strasbourg, France; 2Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Research group Language Teaching and Learning in Multilingual Contexts, Hamar, Norway