Chronotopization of Language Ideologies Among Central Asian Immigrant Families in Southern California

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Climate, Chronotopes, and Conversations: Interrogating the Logics of Critical Inquiry (Table 12)

Abstract

Researchers on Family Language Policy (Curdt-Christiansen, 2009; King, 2008; Spolsky, 2007) have explored how diasporic groups maintain heritage languages post-migration (Curdt-Christiansen, 2010). This paper integrates Chronotope (Bakhtin, 1981; Blommaert & Backus, 2013) with Family Language Policy to analyze Central Asian immigrant families’ language ideologies in Southern California. Through parent and youth interviews, it reveals that Central Asian immigrants navigate multi-layered identities as indigenous people, ethnic minorities in Central Asia, and U.S. newcomer immigrants. Their family language decisions span contexts of the Former Soviet era, post-colonial independence states, and U.S. pan Asian community. The study emphasizes Central Asian communities' attachment to land, cultural knowledge, and language sovereignty, highlighting their resilience in preserving linguistic heritage across generations and timespaces.

Author

• Munira Kairat, University of California - Santa Barbara