“You should speak Balochi;not Lasi”: A parental language policy for a bilingual child

Abstract

Aims:

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of parent-formed family language policy on the language use of a bilingual child.

Methodology:

Qualitative research methodology was employed to collect data about family language policy through interviews with parents. Observations and audio recordings of the child’s speech were used to understand the bilingual performance of the child in the two languages.

Data and Analysis:

The data from all three sources, including interviews, observation notes, audio recordings, and speaking tasks were transcribed and analyzed through Spolsky’s language policy framework.

Findings and conclusion:

The findings from the data revealed that family language policy has a strong influence on the child’s fluency, identity, and attitude as preferred by the parents.

Originality:

This article reports the findings from empirical data collected for family language policy on the under-researched local languages of Pakistan in a Lasi–Balochi bilingual family and its influence on the language use of the bilingual child.

Keywords

Family language policy language policy bilingualism language attitude Pakistan Balochi Lasi

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Altman

Burstein Feldman

Yitzhaki

Armon Lotem

Walters

(2014). Family language policies reported language use and proficiency in Russian—Hebrew bilingual children in Israel. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 35(3), 216–234. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2013.852561

Bezcioglu-Goktolga

Yagmur

(2018). Home language policy of second-generation Turkish families in the Netherlands. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(1), 44–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2017.1310216

Bohnacker

(2022). Turkish heritage families in Sweden: Language practices and family language policy. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 43, 861–873. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2041646

Braun

Clarke

(2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Bui

T. M.

Turner

Filipi

(2024). Including children’s voice in family language policy: An exploration of the tensions between mothers’ and children’s language beliefs. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45, 2863–2879. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2077353

Cardona

(2003). The Indo-Aryan languages. Routledge.

Chowdhury

F. Y.

Rojas-Lizana

(2021). Family language policies among Bangladeshi migrants in Southeast Queensland, Australia. International Multilingual Research Journal, 15(2), 178–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2020.1846835

Curdt-Christiansen

X. L.

(2024). Family language policy: Enriching the field and expanding the scope. Sociolinguistic Studies, 18(1-2), 223–228. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.26345

Curdt-Christiansen

X. L.

Morgia

F. L.

(2018). Managing heritage language development: Opportunities and challenges for Chinese, Italian and Pakistani Urdu-speaking families in the UK. Multilingua, 37(2), 177–200. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2017-0019

10.

Degu

Y. A.

(2021). Exploring family language policy in action: Child agency and the lived experiences of multilingual Ethiopian and Eritrean families in Sweden. Multilingual Margins: A Journal of Multilingualism from the Periphery, 8(1), 26–51. https://doi.org/10.14426/mm.v8i1.1380

11.

De Houwer

. (1999). Environmental factors in early bilingual development: The role of parental beliefs and attitudes. Bilingualism and Migration, 75–96. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110807820.75

12.

Fogle

L. W.

King

K. A.

(2013). Child agency and language policy in transnational families. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 19, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.5070/L4190005288

13.

Gharibi

Mirvahedi

S. H.

(2024). ‘You are Iranian even if you were born on the moon’: Family language policies of the Iranian diaspora in the UK. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45, 1017–1032. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1935974

14.

M. M.

Han

(2020). Exploring family language policy and planning among ethnic minority families in Hong Kong: Through a socio-historical and processed lens. Current Issues in Language Planning, 22(4), 466–486. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2020.1748371

15.

Gyogi

(2015). Children’s agency in language choice: A case study of two Japanese-English bilingual children in London. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18(6), 749–764. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2014.956043

16.

Humeau

Guimard

Nocus

Galharret

J.-M.

(2024). Parental language practices and children’s use of the minority language: The mediating role of children’s language attitudes. International Journal of Bilingualism, 29, 40–56. https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069231207326

17.

Janjua

M. F.

(2023). Development and validation of patriarchal beliefs scale in Pakistani culture. Annals of Human and Social Sciences, 4(2), 236–249. http://doi.org/10.35484/ahss.2023(4-II)22

18.

Kayam

Hirsch

(2013). Israel’s English speaking immigrant parents’ family language policy management: Language in the education domain. International Journal of Linguistics, 5(1), 320–331. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijl.v5i1.2680

19.

Khan

F. R.

Malghani

Abdullah

Tanveer

(2021). A study of linguistic and social dynamics in the growth of ethnic identity. Psychology and Education, 58(3), 1812–1828. www.psychologyandeducation.net

20.

Khan

F. R.

Malghani

Ayaz

(2020). Construction of Baloch ethnic identity through ethnolinguistic awareness and cultural dynamics. Global Regional Review, 5(1), 84–91. https://doi.org/10.31703/grr.2020(V-I).11

21.

Khan

M. A.

Zaki

(2022). Corpus assisted critical discourse analysis of Pakistan’s language education policy documents: What are the existing language ideologies? SAGE Open, 12, 21582440221121805. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221121805

22.

King

K. A.

Fogle

Logan-Terry

(2008). Family language policy. Language and Linguistics Compass, 2(5), 907–922. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-818x.2008.00076.x

23.

Kostoulas

Motsiou

(2022). Family language policy in mixed-language families: An exploratory study of online parental discourses. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25(2), 696–708. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1715915

24.

(2020). “We only speak Chinese at home”: A case study of an immigrant Chinese family’s family language policy in New Zealand. He Kupu, 6(3), 41–50.

25.

McLeod

Verdon

Wang

Tran

V. H.

(2019). Language proficiency, use, and maintenance among People with Vietnamese heritage living in Australia. Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1558/jmbs.10973

26.

Nawaz

(2019). An elegy of a patriarch: Boys will be boys by Sara Suleri. International Journal of English and Literature, 4(3), 548–555. https://doi:10.22161/IJELS.4.3.2

27.

Norich

(2011). Language choice. Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library.

28.

Ong

T. W. S.

(2021). Family language policy, language maintenance and language shift: Perspectives from ethnic Chinese single mothers in Malaysia. Issues in Language Studies, 10(1), 59–75. https://doi.org/10.33736/ils.3075.2021

29.

Revis

(2019). A Bourdieusian perspective on child agency in family language policy. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(2), 177–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1239691

30.

Said

F. F. S.

(2021). Arabic-English bilingual children’s early home literacy environments and parental language policies. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 29(3), 424–440. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2021.1928724

31.

Shaffandi. (2014, August 20). Young man standing near the beach stock photo - image of recreation, people: 47240030. [Photograph] Dreamstime. https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-young-man-standing-near-beach-looking-sea-image47240030

32.

Shah

Shahriar

Pathan

(2021). Linguistic human rights of minorities and language policy: A case study of Balochi language in education in Lyari, Karachi, Pakistan. Journal of Literature, Languages and Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.7176/jlll/83-06

33.

Spolsky

(2004). Language policy. Cambridge University Press.

34.

Spolsky

(2012). Family language policy—the critical domain. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2011.638072

35.

Susyetina

(2020). Language preference of bilingual preschool children in articulating word-object relationships. Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, 7(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.33394/jollt.v7i1.1333

36.

Torsh

H. I.

(2020). Linguistic intermarriage in Australia: Between pride and shame. Palgrave Macmillan.

37.

Vorobyeva

Bel

(2021). Factors affecting language proficiency in heritage language: The case of young Russian Heritage speakers in Spain. Journal of Language Contact, 14(2), 304–330. https://doi.org/10.1163/19552629-14020003

38.

Williams

(2005). Language Prestige. In Hogan-Brun

May

(Eds.), Sustaining language diversity in Europe. Palgrave studies in minority languages and communities (pp. 134–149). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230514683_6

39.

Wilson

(2021). To mix or not to mix: Parental attitudes towards translanguaging and language management choices. International Journal of Bilingualism, 25(1), 58–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006920909902

40.

Windfuhr

(2009). The Iranian languages. Routledge.

41.

Yıldırım

F. Ã

. (2020). Language choice and identity: An investigation based on the comparison of language attitudes from two different localities. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 16(2), Article 2. https://www.jlls.org/index.php/jlls/article/view/1650xon

42.

Yazan

Ali

(2018). Family language policies in a Libyan immigrant family in the U.S.: Language and religious identity. Heritage Language Journal, 15(3), 369–387. https://doi.org/10.46538/hlj.15.3.5

43.

Ylikoski

Zahle

(2019). Case study research in the Social Sciences. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 78, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2019.10.003