Family language policy: the role of pro-Galician parents in intergenerational transmission

Abstract

In a bilingual society, each individual within the family domain has his or her own linguistic practices and beliefs about language choice. Therefore, language practices inside family can be considered as an important marker of intergenerational transmission of a minoritized language such as Galician. The primary focus of this study is to investigate how individual linguistic practices and ideologies of the pro-Galician parents act as ‘visible’ and/or ‘invisible’ language planning measures at home influencing their children’s language learning. Drawing from multiple ethnographic research methods including observational fieldnotes, in-depth fieldwork interviews from Santiago de Compostela and Bertamiráns and two focus groups in Santiago de Compostela and Vigo with several Galician parents, this paper demonstrates that in Galicia’s language shift-induced shrinking orthodox native speaker pool, pro-Galician parents can play an important role in the language revitalisation process. The paper also endeavours to ascertain whether these parents can restore intergenerational transmission in a Castilian dominated landscape and if their microcosmic interrogation of the dominant discourse could lead to bottom-up language policies of resistance at the grassroots level. In this regard, this article seeks to reevaluate sociolinguistic concepts such as family language policy and their immediate impact on home language planning and management decisions what these parents use to maintain the intergenerational transmission of Galician.