“We know the same languages and then we can mix them” : A child´s perspectives on translanguaging and family language policy

• This study presents an investigation of a young multilingual child, called Laura, and her parents as they navigate language practices using Hungarian, Finnish, and Swedish in their everyday life in Sweden. The multimethod study focused on Laura’s perspectives. Our aim was to highlight a child’s “lived experience” of translanguaging as her views on and experiences of translanguaging reveal how she respects or resists the planned family language policy. First, Laura was interviewed and observed over the course of one day at home with her family. One researcher engaged Laura in play in order to elicit her views on her agency and linguistic repertoire in relation to family language policies. Second, Laura’s parents were interviewed about the implicit and explicit family language policies, and how these policies were initially constructed and then developed in their implementation over the course of the childhood of Laura and her two younger siblings. These interviews and observations were considered together with material (written observations and audio-recorded interactions) collected by the parents since Laura’s birth. The triangulation of methods offers a unique view of how one child exercises agency, makes use of her linguistic resources, articulates metalinguistic awareness, considers societal language hierarchies, and respects or resists the family language policy set forth by her parents—thus creating her own everyday translanguaging practices. Our results indicate the importance of linguistic awareness and repertoires, and suggests the potential that this multilingual child possesses for exercising agency in order to “make sense” of her multilingual world. We argue that focusing on a child’s stories of everyday translanguaging framed within her family’s language policy and practices has relevance for understanding the home, school, and societal implications of young children’s translanguaging.  

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Utbildning och lärande

Education and Learning

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)