Universiteit Leiden

nl en

Lecture | Sociolinguistics series

Family as a language policy regime: power, agency and negotiations at home

Date
Friday 25 March 2022
Time
Series
Sociolinguistics & Discourse Studies Series
Location
Online | https://smart.newrow.com/#/room/wkg-309

Abstract

In the contemporary era of globalization, the pressure of dominant languages on minority languages is relentless, partly because many speakers of smaller languages can see more opportunities if they shift to a dominant one. Despite these pressures, however, many minority language speakers (both indigenous minorities and in the context of migration) continue to maintain or reclaim their languages as active agents through everyday interactions and the transmission of the language within the home. Drawing on ethnographic research data from Spain and the UK, this lecture aims to understand the dynamics of minority language speaking families in multilingual settings and their grassroots-level practices. I will demonstrate how parents through their individual as well as collective linguistic practices have the potential to generate visible and invisible language policies on the ground influencing their children’s language learning. The endeavour is also to reveal the key challenges they come across while implementing these policies. These dynamics will be explored through the lens of language policy which can broadly be described as any conscious decision or choice made about language(s) by certain actors such as the state, community or individual based on certain criteria such as efficiency or symbolic value.

About Anik

Dr. Anik Nandi is Visiting Researcher at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (The Netherlands) where he initiated the LUCL Virtual Research Seminar Series on Language Policy and Practices in the Global North and South that received nearly 1400 registrations around the world. In addition to his current role at Leiden, Anik also works as a Senior Research Associate at the Royal Galician Academy (Spain) and as a Collaborator at the research centre affiliated to the UNESCO Chair on World Language Heritage at the University of Basque Country (Spain). Nandi specialises in language policy and literacy practices in multilingual settings and his research papers appeared in many prestigious international journals such as Multilingua, Language Policy, Current Issues in Language Planning, Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics, Language and Migration and the Russian Journal of Linguistics to name a few.

Sociolinguistics website

This website uses cookies.  More information.