Abstract
Aims: By applying the tripartite framework of family language policy, this study seeks to gain insight into heritage language maintenance of Polish families in Melbourne. To this end, an integrative investigation of family language policy encapsulating the heritage language perceptions, practices and management will be employed. Methodology: Based on the data collected through the online questionnaire supplemented with in-depth interviews, quantitative and qualitative analyses have been conducted to obtain a sociolinguistic picture of the convoluted dependencies. Data and analysis: The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and coded according to the grounded theory approach. The recurrent themes were noted. The existing social patterns were conceptualised through the process of constant comparison. The excerpts selected for analysis illustrate how critical have been the informants’ beliefs and practices concerning heritage language maintenance. Findings and conclusions: The data analyses of the researched families disclose a wide range of practices where certain discrepancies are observed between declarations and the actual language behaviours. It also emerges that without parents’ reinforcement and establishing the heritage language as a default means of communication at home, children suffer from lower productive skills. Originality: This paper delves into how Polish is maintained as a heritage language by the second generation of Polish-speaking immigrants. It explores the Polish community, one of the well-established yet understudied groups that make up multicultural Australia. It unfolds an account of the dynamics of family language policy, illustrating how they are constantly negotiated, contested and formed by parents. Significance/implications: The findings contribute to the ongoing discussion of language policies and heritage language maintenance by demonstrating that the hardship and distress resulting from heritage language acquisition as well as language maintenance are incumbent primarily on family language policy. The researched group is an average-size immigrant community situated in the context with limited institutional support resolving down to Polish Saturday schools.
Highlights
With almost 29% of the whole resident population born overseas in 2019, it is clear that Australia’s ongoing history of immigration is one of the defining features of its society (Romanowski, 2021)
The Polish diaspora in Australia has already been investigated by Leuner (2007), who concentrated on Polish immigration to Melbourne in the 1980s and how the Australian immigration policy affected them
Positive language beliefs towards a heritage language need to be translated into actual family language practices, which will later become visible in the home language management
Summary
With almost 29% of the whole resident population born overseas in 2019, it is clear that Australia’s ongoing history of immigration is one of the defining features of its society (Romanowski, 2021). Dębski (2009) researched English–Polish bilingualism of Australians in the era of globalisation and digitisation He demonstrated the significance of electronic communications as tools impacting Polish language maintenance in the diasporic communities. This paper will focus on immigrant parents’ family language policy (FLP) with reference to their children’s heritage language development and maintenance. As evident in the said researched group, heritage speakers are to some extent bilingual, and able to communicate in both languages (Montrul, 2008; Polinsky, 2018). They acquired Polish as their first language (L1) in the early years, English is dominant due to mainstream schooling. Positive language beliefs towards a heritage language need to be translated into actual family language practices, which will later become visible in the home language management
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