The dynamics of Family Language Policy in a trilingual family: A longitudinal case study

Abstract

Family Language Policy (FLP) is a pioneering yet dynamically thriving interdisciplinary field of study, which successfully integrates language acquisition, multilingual studies, sociolinguistics and ecolinguistics. The present paper reports on the longitudinal case study of a Polish-Japanese family residing in the UK and the development of their family language policy. Through a specific focus on narrative data and observations, obtained in two cycles of research in 2014/15 and 2017, it illustrates the parents’ attitudes towards their minority languages (Polish and Japanese, respectively), the majority language (English) and their child’s multilingualism. Irrespective of the parents’ positive attitudes towards multilingualism and their declared efforts to raise a trilingual child, the original study (E. WąsikiewiczFirlej 2016) showed the dominance of the majority language in the family, and pointed to substantial difficulties in the maintenance of minority languages, which was mostly explicated by the child’s agency in shaping FLP. The results of the first stage of the study (2014/15) have been juxtaposed with the data obtained in 2017 in order to verify the parents’ declared vs. actual language management, as well as the dynamics of FLP over time. The findings have confirmed the assumed dynamic character of the family’s language policy, which is shaped by a range of constantly changing micro and macro factors, contributing to a better understanding of FLP sociolinguistic ecology.