"No! I'm Going to School, I Need to Speak English!" Who Makes Family Language Decisions?

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Negotiating Home, School, and Community Multilingual Languaging Practices

Abstract

This study examines links between expressions of identity, language beliefs, and language use decisions of eight immigrant families with a fourth-grade child in an English monolingual school in the Northeastern United States. The study involves diverse language backgrounds, including Cape Verdean Creole, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish. Findings demonstrate participants’ expressed identities show affinity for their heritage countries yet accepting an “American” identity for the children in relation to the U.S. as their birthplace. Participating parents and children describe bilingualism and heritage language maintenance as valuable skills. Yet, despite families’ expressed affinity with heritage languages, family language decisions increasingly alienate heritage language use. All families report advent of schooling as a key turning point for English dominance in family language practices.

Authors

• Yalda M. Kaveh, Arizona State University

• Jorge Sandoval, Arizona State University