Speaking in nobody's mother tongue: English immersion at home as a family language policy

Abstract

In a globalized society, where neoliberalism imposes its logic at all levels, languages (and particularly, English) are seen as profitable commodities to thrive in the market society. In Spain, a growing number of families, aware of the value ascribed to English as an international lingua franca (ELF), intensively support their children to achieve a high command in this language, by means of the implementation of strategies such as the creation of English immersion scenarios at home. The participants in this study were 17 families, with parents whose mother tongue was not English, but who used English at home in the interactions with their children. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews and was analysed against the frameworks of neoliberal approaches to language learning, family language policy, non-native bilingualism, good parenting, and linguistic family agency and entrepreneurship. Results shed light into language beliefs and conceptions, and language planning and management that underpin this atypical sociolinguistic practice, as well as the dilemmas and disruptions families deal with to successfully implement immersion environments in a language that is nobody's mother tongue.