Abstract
The present study explores language socialization patterns in a Persian-Kurdish family in Sweden and examines how “one-parent, one-language” family language policies are instantiated and negotiated in parent–child interactions. The data consist of video-recordings and ethnographic observations of family interactions, as well as interviews. Detailed interactional analysis is employed to investigate parental language maintenance efforts and the child’s agentive orientation in relation to the recurrent interactional practices through which parents attempt to enforce a monolingual, heritage language “context” for parent–child interaction. We examine the interactional trajectories that develop in parents’ requests for translation that target the focus child’s (a7-year-old girl’s) lexical mixings. These practices resembled formal language instruction: The parents suspended the ongoing conversational activity, requested that the child translate the problematic item, modeled and assessed her language use. The instructional exchanges were asymmetrically organized: the parents positioned themselves as “experts”, insisting on the child’s active participation, whereas the child’s (affectively aggravated) resistance was frequent, and the parents recurrently accommodated the child by terminating the language instruction. The study argues that an examination of children’s agency, and the social dynamics characterizing parental attempts to shape children’s heritage language use, can provide significant insights into the conditions for language maintenance
Acknowledgement
Collaboration with the project ‘Language policies and practices in multilingual families and preschools’ (Swedish Research Council) is gratefully acknowledged.
Transcription conventions
Talk has been transcribed by using conventions developed by G. Jefferson.
- (.5)
pauses in tenths of a second
- (.)
micropause, i.e., shorter than (0.2)
- =
latching between utterances
- [
overlapping talk
- -
denotes cut-off
- :
prolonged syllable
- .
denotes falling terminal intonation
- ?
denotes rising terminal intonation
- >what<
quicker than surrounding talk
- <what>
slower than surrounding talk
- ˚what˚
quieter than surrounding talk
- WHAT
relatively high amplitude
- what
denotes emphatic stress
- (( ))
further comments of the transcriber
- vet inte
talk in Swedish
- afᴂrin
talk in Persian
- lowbia
talk in Kurdish
- okay beans
translation to English from Swedish, Persian or Kurdish
Key to morphologic abbreviations
- 1
first person
- 2
second person
- 3
third person
- DEF
definite
- EZ
ezāfeh (connects two words)
- IMP
imperative
- NEG
negative
- PL
plural
- POSS
possessive
- PRF
perfect
- PRS
present
- PROG
progressive
- PST
past
- SG
singular
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©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- “We”, “They” and the Spaces In-Between: Hybridity in Intercultural Interactions between Portuguese and Chinese Residents in Macau
- Language Maintenance in a Multilingual Family: Informal Heritage Language Lessons in Parent–Child Interactions
- Traveling Through Languages: Reports on Language Experiences in Tourists’ Travel Blogs
- Dating the Shift to English in the Financial Accounts of Some London Livery Companies: A Reappraisal
- Multiple Requests in Arabic as a Second Language
- Book Reviews
- Diana Eades: Aboriginal Ways of Using English
- Maryam Borjian: English in post-revolutionary Iran: From indigenization to internationalization
- A. Duchêne, M. Moyer, and C. Roberts: Language, migration and social inequalities: A critical sociolinguistic perspective on institutions and work
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- “We”, “They” and the Spaces In-Between: Hybridity in Intercultural Interactions between Portuguese and Chinese Residents in Macau
- Language Maintenance in a Multilingual Family: Informal Heritage Language Lessons in Parent–Child Interactions
- Traveling Through Languages: Reports on Language Experiences in Tourists’ Travel Blogs
- Dating the Shift to English in the Financial Accounts of Some London Livery Companies: A Reappraisal
- Multiple Requests in Arabic as a Second Language
- Book Reviews
- Diana Eades: Aboriginal Ways of Using English
- Maryam Borjian: English in post-revolutionary Iran: From indigenization to internationalization
- A. Duchêne, M. Moyer, and C. Roberts: Language, migration and social inequalities: A critical sociolinguistic perspective on institutions and work