While the study of bilingual development among children dates back roughly a century (Leopold Reference Leopold1939–49; Ronjat Reference Ronjat1913Footnote 1), a defined research focus on family language policy is relatively new. Family language policy (FLP) links studies of child language acquisition and early second language learning and bilingualism with the field of language policy. FLP examines language policy in relation to language use and language choice within the home among family members (King, Fogle & Logan-Terry Reference King, Fogle and Logan-Terry2008). This line of inquiry differs from more psycholinguistically oriented investigations of bilingualism; rather than targeting the child, the emphasis of FLP is on the balance between and use of languages within the family unit. Thus, FLP addresses child language learning and use as functions of parental ideologies, decision-making and strategies concerning languages and literacies, as well as the broader social and cultural context of family life.
The interdisciplinary field of FLP draws from anthropology (and work on language socialization in particular) and sociolinguistics (specifically, discourse analysis) while also incorporating traditional psychological approaches to bilingualism. While FLP is still coalescing as a field, there have already been several notable shifts. The first of these is increased focus on and intentional inclusion of a broader, more diverse range of family types, languages, and social contexts. While FLP research has tended to document two-parent, middle-class homes in which children are acquiring more than one European language (Métraux Reference Métraux1965; Lanza Reference Lanza1992), current work explores how these processes play out within minority language and/or non-traditional (e.g. adoptive, single-parent) families in transnational or diasporic contexts (Canagarajah Reference Canagarajah2008). Second, the last ten years of FLP research have been marked by increased emphasis on the family as a dynamic system, including the importance of child agency and identity choices, both enacted through language (Okita Reference Okita2001; Gafaranga Reference Gafaranga2010). Third, current work in FLP gives greater emphasis to trilingualism or multilingualism, with a growing number of studies examining how families manage multiple languages (Lanza & Svendsen Reference Lanza and Svendsen2007; Curdt-Christiansen Reference Curdt-Christiansen2009).
Our timeline focuses on empirical research into FLP. In particular, we include the most influential accounts which link parental language policies, strategies, or ideologies with child outcomes in terms of language competencies, identity, or use. Our empirical focus means that we have left aside some highly influential theoretical, sociological, and historical works such as Fishman's Reversing language shift (Reference Fishman1991), which illustrated the importance of FLP and intergenerational transmission for language survival. We also exclude the many studies of child bilingual development that give little empirical attention to parental language use (for this, see Barac & Bialystok's Reference Barac and Bialystok2011Research Timeline, ‘Cognitive development of bilingual children’). Rather, the focus here is on studies that examine the management of more than one language in the family context; this includes studies of homes in which parents use multiple languages as well as examinations of monolingual policies within immigrant families or international adoptive families that have not shifted to the majority language at home. In all cases, however, the children have the potential to become bilingual because of environmental factors.
We intentionally exclude parent-oriented ‘how to’ manuals (e.g. Barron-Hauwaert Reference Barron-Hauwaert2004, Reference Barron-Hauwaert2012; King & Mackey Reference King and Mackey2007; Zurer Pearson Reference Zurer Pearson2008) and textbooks on bilingualism (e.g. De Houwer Reference De Houwer2009), as these are not directed at a research audience, but instead aim to make research related to bilingualism and second language learning widely accessible. We do, however, include reports by parents of their own children's language development, as in some cases these have been foundational and influential for academic research. We also include accounts of multilingual development, although this is not highlighted in a separate section.
This timeline organizes the FLP literature into three categories, noted in the final column of the timeline:
A First-person, parental accounts of bilingual child-rearing and FLP
B Social, cultural, and ideological influences on bilingual child-rearing and FLP
C Relationship between FLP and child outcomes
C1 Relationship between FLP and child language proficiency
C2 Relationship between FLP and child social identity or cultural attitudes
C3 Relationship between FLP and child language use in the home
As FLP matures as a field of study, we expect to see greater focus placed on the sociocultural factors influencing parents and families and sharper attention paid to the impact of children on family language policy processes. With increased attention on the greater number of families participating in migratory and transnational flows, the field of FLP will help us understand the linguistic and social worlds of young children, most of whom – when we look worldwide – are shaped by, and also shape, their multilingual contexts.
Kendall A. King is Professor of Second Languages and Cultures at the University of Minnesota. Her research addresses social, cultural, and political aspects of second language learning and bilingualism, with particular attention to minority and endangered languages in the United States and Latin America. Her most recent articles appear in Applied Linguistics, Linguistics and Education, and Discourse Studies. She is Editor of the journal Language Policy (Springer).
Lyn Wright Fogle is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and TESOL at Mississippi State University. Her research focuses on identity and ideology in second language learning. Her book, Second language socialization and learner agency: Talk in three adoptive families (Multilingual Matters), investigates language learning in transnational adoptive families.
