Maintaining the Heritage Language in the Family’s Linguistic Cocktail
Abstract
This study mainly explored the language planning vis-à-vis heritage language maintenance of a migrant multilingual Igorot family in Malaybalay, Mindanao. By employing descriptive qualitative research design via Focus Group Discussion (FGD), this study revealed that the family’s language planning is covert, with the father acting as an unconscious language planner. This role has helped maintain the heritage language, ‘Kankanaey,’ within a multilingual linguistic cocktail, which includes Ilocano, Filipino, English, and Bisaya. Though multilingualism gives birth to this linguistic cocktail in the family to communicate in different communication situations (i.e., family, family-relative, social, and educational affairs), it does not directly threaten the maintenance of their heritage language because it is practiced between and among family members and relatives. The family’s use of Kankanaey within their inner circle, despite the grandson’s unfamiliarity with it, does not suggest a gradual loss of the language. As the grandson is still in his teenage years, there is potential for him to acquire and maintain the heritage language. This study further demonstrated that the language planning of the family serves as a concrete basis for the local legislators to make policies concerning education, specifically a policy involving the recognition of heritage languages that form students’ linguistic identities, a policy capable of securing these languages to serve as bridging languages to learn best a second language.
Keywords:
family language planning, language ideologies, language practices, management strategies, heritage language maintenance, multilingual Igorot family
References
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Spolsky, B. (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
Biseth, H. (2009). Multilingualism and education for democracy. International Review of Education, 55, 5–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-007-9079-3
Cummins, J. (2000b). Language, power and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. In H. Biseth (Ed.), Multilingualism and education for democracy. International Review of Education, 55, 5–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-007-9079-3
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2009). Invisible and visible language planning: Ideological factors in the family language policy of Chinese immigrant families in Quebec. Language Policy, 8(4), 351–375. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-009-9146-7
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2014). Family language policy: Is learning Chinese at odds with learning English in Singapore? Language Policy, 13(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-013-9309-1
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2022). Family language policy and school language policy: Can the twain meet? International Journal of Multilingualism, 19(3), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2022.2050242
De Houwer, A. (2007). Parental language input patterns and children’s bilingual use. Applied
Psycholinguistics, 28, 411–424. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716407070221
Desai, Z. (2000). Mother tongue education: The key to African language development? A conversation with an imagined South African audience. In H. Biseth (Ed.), Multilingualism and education for democracy. International Review of Education, 55, 5–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-007-9079-3
Fogle, L. W. (2013). Parental ethnotheories and family language policy in transnational adoptive families. In R. Gomes (Ed.), Family language policy ten years on: A critical approach to family multilingualism. Multilingual Margins, 5(2), 51–72. https://doi.org/10.14426/mm.v5i2.98
Gomes, R. (2018). Family language policy ten years on: A critical approach to family multilingualism. Multilingual Margins, 5(2), 51–72. https://doi.org/10.14426/mm.v5i2.98
Gyogi, E. (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
Heugh, K. (2000). Giving good weight to multilingualism in South Africa. In H. Biseth (Ed.), Multilingualism and education for democracy. International Review of Education, 55, 5–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-007-9079-3
Kayam, O., & Hirsch, T. (2014). Socialization of language through family language policy: A case study. Psychology of Language and Communication, 18(1), 53–66. https://doi.org/10.2478/plc-2014-0004
Kheirkhah, M., & Cekaite, A. (2015). Language maintenance in a multilingual family: Informal heritage language lessons in parent-child interactions. Multilingua, 34(3), 319–346. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2014-1020
King, K. A., & Fogle, L. (2006). Bilingual parenting as good parenting: Parents’ perspectives on family language policy for additive bilingualism. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 9(6), 695–712. https://doi.org/10.2167/beb362.0
Kymlicka, W. (2001). Politics in the vernacular: Nationalism, multiculturalism, and citizenship. International Review of Education, 55, 5-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-007-9079-3
McCombes. (2019). Descriptive research. Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/descriptive-research/
Perez-Baez, G. (2013). Family language policy, transnationalism, and the diaspora community of San Lucas Quiavin of Oaxaca, Mexico. Language Policy, 12(1), 27–45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-012-9270-7
Schwartz, M. (2010). Family language policy: Core issues of an emerging field. Applied Linguistics Review, 1, 171–192. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110222654.171
Selleck, C. (2023). The gendered migrant experience: A study of family language policy (FLP) amongst mothers and daughters in the Somali community, Bristol. Current Issues in Language Planning, 24(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2022.2047512
Spolsky, B. (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
Published
2024-12-30
Section
Articles
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