Family Language Policy

"This important book urges readers to reconsider proficiency-oriented definitions of ‘success’ within family language policy. Instead, Wilson calls our attention to the well-being of the transnational family and the experiences of children growing up within transnational families. By emphasizing the voices of young heritage speakers via creative research methods, this book encourages us to prioritize the emotional experience of the child rather than idealized notions of balanced bilingualism."
— Kendall King, University of Minnesota, USA
This volume provides fascinating insights into family language practices among French and English families of intercultural marriage. It is a ground-breaking study that brings children’s voices, an often overlooked factor, into Family Language Policy research. It makes a convincing case for taking children’s lived experiences seriously in language learning for both families and researchers. — Zhu Hua, University of Birmingham, UK
This excellent book delves into what school-age bilingual children themselves think about language practices in their familiy. The author interviewed them and had them draw language portraits of themselves. This book is a rich addition to research on Family Language Policy. — Jean-Marc Dewaele, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

This book explores the question of family language policy in multilingual households. Presenting six case studies which focus on the experiences of parents and children in French-English bilingual contexts, the author draws conclusions about the impact of parental language management on the family as a whole which can be applied to transnational families from other linguistic backgrounds. While many parental guides on bilingual childrearing have been published in recent years, little attention has been paid to the possible impact of such language strategies on the experiences and interrelationships of bilingual family members. This book is unique in focusing in depth on the psychology and experiences of the child, and it will be of interest to readers in fields as diverse as sociolinguistics, language policy and planning, sociology of youth and family, and child psychology.

Sonia Wilson holds a PhD in sociolinguistics. She has conducted a three-year study on children’s and parents’ perspectives on bilingualism and the effect of certain language strategies on the well-being of multilingual families.