We analyze the way children and youngsters perceive the role of family in the use and acquisition of the heritage language (HL), through two complementary means: drawings produced by children and students participating in a discussion forum. Our study reveals: (1) the convergence of perceptions that children and adolescents have about family…

This study explores early francization models for a linguistic minority currently struggling to preserve its language. The French Acadians of New Brunswick, Canada, represent 30% of the province's total population, yet their numbers and their linguistic vitality are decreasing. New Brunswick has two public school systems: the English language…

A challenge noted in a number of endangered language contexts is the need to mix second-language (L2) learners of the target language with first-language (L1) speakers of that language in a less planned way than is found in the two-way immersion approach. Such mixing of L1 speakers of the target language with L2 learners arises from the difficulty…

In Australia, languages education in early childhood and primary education includes three main approaches: transitional, enrichment and full bilingual programmes. This article proposes that transitional and enrichment programmes in Australia are constituted and shaped by competing and contested institutional, material, discursive and economic…

Based on sociocultural theories of learning, this paper draws on findings from a research project "a day in a life of a bilingual practitioner". It explores how two multilingual practitioners in English early years settings supported the learning of young 3-4 year-old children, and their parents and teachers. The paper challenges the…

Parents who enroll their children to be educated through a threatened minority language frequently do not speak that language themselves and classes in the language are sometimes offered to parents in the expectation that this will help them to support their children's education and to use the minority language in the home. Providing…

The aim of this study is to examine the strategies majority language-speaking parents use to support the development of the minority language in families who follow the pattern of exposure known as one-parent-one-language (OPOL). In this particular pattern of raising a child bilingually, each parent speaks only their own native language to their…

The paper discusses sequential language acquisition of the researcher's daughter Safa who transformed from a monolingual Bengali speaker to an almost monolingual English speaker in a few months after moving to the UK. Safa was born in Bangladesh and was a monolingual Bengali speaker until she was three years and nine months when the family…

The 2002 Language Policy for Higher Education (LPHE) identifies the currently dominant language of instruction--English--as being a possible barrier to many African students in accessing and successfully completing studies at higher education level. The LPHE thus requires that black African languages be developed at Higher Education Institutions…

This article reports on an investigation of family language policies among 37 Albanian immigrant families in Northern Greece within the framework of Spolsky's language policy model. Data collection was based on semi-directed interviews with parents which were analysed using both content and discourse analysis. According to our findings, three…

This special issue devoted to Catalonia--one of the most successful and longstanding language movements in Europe--gives a unique opportunity to understand some of the complex social dynamics engendered as language revival unfolds and to appreciate the value of in-depth interviewing, focus groups, and ethnographic work in making sometimes subtle…

Imagined identity is the way of positioning individuals or being positioned by others in an imagined world, where individuals' cultural identifications interplay with cultural and language practices. This lays the basis for the current research on the construction of imagined memberships by two young ethnic Korean students in China. An analysis of…

A growing body of literature has explored issues surrounding the maintenance and development of a minority heritage language among immigrants and their children in relation to their ethnic identities in multi-ethnic societies. However, most of the studies either have alluded to heritage learners' language competence by way of their attitudes and…

According to the 2001 Census, there has been a substantial increase in the numbers of Welsh speakers aged 5-15 years, especially in south-east Wales. It is generally accepted that this increase can be largely attributed to the success of Welsh-medium education. Indeed, Welsh-medium education has long been seen as an effective language planning…

An analysis of the language attitudes in the adjacent regions of Els Ports (in the province of Castellon, Spain) and Matarranya (in the province of Teruel, Spain) using the matched-guise technique shows that in both areas, Catalan and Spanish coexist today in a diglossic situation in which Catalan has instrumental values that are lower than those…