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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 505

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Language policies among Albanian immigrant families in Greece

Authors: Chatzidaki, Aspassia; Maligkoudi, Christina
Submitted by: Chatzidaki, Aspassia (University of Crete, Greece)

The research reported here is part of a larger investigation which focused on Albanian immigrant families and their views and practices with regard to their children’s bilingualism, as well as to the Greek state’s response to cultural diversity in education (Maligkoudi 2010).

Our approach to family language policy is basically informed by Spolsky’s conceptualization of language policy (Spolsky 2004).We investigate Albanian families’ language policies in terms of the complex interplay between language ideologies, practices and language management. With regard to language ideologies, we focus particularly on parental expectations, that is “the beliefs and goals that parents have for their children’s multilingual development and educational outcomes’’ (Curdt-Christiansen 2009:356), as parental beliefs about what constitutes ‘good parenting’ are central in shaping their practices with regard to bilingual upbringing (King and Fogle 2006).

Thirty-seven families living in Northern Greece took part in the study. They were interviewed on patterns of family language use and on their views and practices regarding ethnic language maintenance and their children’s education. The subjects’ discourse was analyzed through content analysis; the combined ‘reading’ of the data with regard to the families’ ideologies and practices/management led us to distinguish between three groups: A first group of parents (n=4) sees no point in transmitting the ethnic language to their children and has abandoned its use altogether. A second group of parents (n=21) expresses positive views on ethnic language maintenance and reports the use of Albanian with their children; however, such parents seem resigned to their children’s preference for Greek and do not take any concrete measures to ensure ethnic language transmission. The third group of families (n=12), on the other hand, is characterized by a strong commitment to the maintenance of Albanian; not only do parents insist on its use by their children but they also engage in literacy practices to develop the ethnic language, which results in more successful language maintenance. On the other hand, all subjects show a strong interest in their children’s good command of Greek and educational success.

Our subjects’ diverse views of ‘good parenting’, shaped in turn by dominant discourse on immigrant bilingualism, seem to influence their family language policies. While many parents regard bilingualism and a sense of a strong ethnic identity as assets for their children, the majority considers it their primary duty to help their children achieve integration and social mobility through Greek.

References:

Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2009). Invisible and visible language planning: ideological factors in the family language policy of Chinese immigrant families in Quebec. Language Policy 8: 351-75.

King, K., & Fogle, L. (2006). Bilingual parenting as good parenting: Parentsʼ perspectives on family language policy for additive bilingualism. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 9, 695-712.

Μaligkoudi, C. (2010). The languageeducationofAlbanianpupils. Educational policies and family strategies.Ph.D diss.,University of Crete. (in Greek).

Spolsky, B. (2004). Language Policy. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.