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Bi- and Multilingual Family Language Socialization

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Language Socialization

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education ((ELE))

Abstract

This chapter focuses on language socialization and the ways in which language development and culture are tied in bilingual and multilingual family contexts. A brief overview of language socialization theory and methods is presented. We then examine major contributions to language socialization in contexts of migration, colonization, globalization, and other situations of language contact. While much of the early work in language socialization focused on family language and literacy practices in a single first language to demonstrate the close connections between culture and language learning, by the 1990s researchers began to consider bi- and multilingual language socialization in the family. These studies focused on the ideological and interactional aspects of developing competence in more than one language in childhood and have shed light on the complex processes associated with language maintenance and shift as well as heritage and second language learning. Further, as highlighted below, bi- and multilingual family language socialization emphasizes the processes of hybridity and cultural transformation as well as the agentive role of children and other novices in language socialization processes. We discuss how language socialization has provided alternate ways of understanding bilingual, heritage, and second language development; code-switching; and language shift that highlight the discursive, social, political, and relational aspects of these phenomena. Ongoing scholarship in this area expands on earlier work by taking scalar approaches to better capture language socialization in contexts of mobility, new family formations, and complex negotiations of identity and belonging.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, 38152, USA

    Lyn Wright Fogle

  2. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Kendall A. King

Authors
  1. Lyn Wright Fogle
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  2. Kendall A. King
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Correspondence to Lyn Wright Fogle .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Patricia A. Duff

  2. Faculty of Education and Social Work, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Stephen May

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Fogle, L.W., King, K.A. (2017). Bi- and Multilingual Family Language Socialization. In: Duff, P., May, S. (eds) Language Socialization. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02255-0_7

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