Language Groups Research Articles

Differentiation of ‘multilingual children’ in early education through knowledge of family language practices

ABSTRACT In this study, the notion of ‘multilingual children’ is differentiated by problematizing overgeneralizations or homogenizing of children with potentially different experiences of language(s). The aim is to generate knowledge of how minority language–speaking children use their language(s) outside the education system through teacher–parent dialogue. The terms family language(s) and minority/majority language(s) are argued to capture the situated character of language(s) and to avoid labelling children’s languages from an outside perspective. The analysis conceived as abductive is based on 33 dialogues. The findings imply the children participating in multilingual practices including English as an additional language, and the opposite: the children are rather monolingual in their language use. A conclusion drawn is that being a multilingual child/parent in early childhood education in a monolingual society can be understood in terms of how the space for participation is facilitated and countered.

‘Life would have been harder, harder and more in chaos, if there wasn’t internet’: digital inclusion among newly arrived refugees in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Digital technologies are transforming almost every aspect of people’s lives, with COVID-19 accelerating this transition. For refugees, access and familiarity with these technologies is critical to wider aims of social integration. This article explores digital inclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from studies conducted in 2020 and 2021 with refugees recently resettled in Australia. Inclusion was mapped against three domains – access, affordability, and literacy – from the annual Australian Digital Inclusion Index. Our study found that many respondents reported comparatively high digital inclusion. However, certain characteristics, such as gender, age, presence of children and country of birth, correlated with lower levels of inclusion within some refugee sub-groups. Our research makes three contributions: it examines levels of digital inclusion among recently arrived refugees during COVID-19; it explores how these levels relate to social links and bonds; and it discusses sample differences according to gender, age, language group and type of digital inclusion.

An evaluation and refinement of the “Hep B Story” app, tailored to meet the community’s cultural needs

BackgroundHepatitis B is endemic amongst the Australian Aboriginal population in the Northern Territory. A participatory action research project identified the lack of culturally appropriate education tools and led to the development of the “Hep B Story” app in the Aboriginal language Yolŋu Matha. This paper describes a formal evaluation of the app’s first version, which informed improvements and translation into a further ten Aboriginal languages.MethodsThe evaluation employed Participatory Action Research (PAR) principles to work within Indigenous research methodologies and prioritise Indigenous knowledge to improve the app iteratively. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted across the Northern Territory with 11 different language groups. Local Community Based Researchers and Aboriginal Research team members coordinated sessions. The recorded, translated conversations were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed using an inductive and deductive approach.ResultsBetween November 2018 and September 2020, 94 individuals from 11 language groups participated in 25 semi-structured interviews and 10 focus groups. All participants identified as Aboriginal. Most participants felt the app would be culturally appropriate for Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory and improve knowledge surrounding hepatitis B. The information gathered from these interviews allowed for identifying five main themes: support for app, relationships, concept versus language, shame, and perceptions of images, along with errors that required modification.ConclusionsA “real-life” evaluation of the app was comprehensively completed using a PAR approach blended with Indigenous research methods. This evaluation allowed us to develop an updated and enhanced version of the app before creating the additional ten language versions. An iterative approach alongside strong community engagement was pivotal in ensuring the app’s cultural safety and appropriateness. We recommend avoiding the use of knowledge-based evaluations in an Aboriginal setting to ensure relevant and culturally appropriate feedback is obtained.

A cross-cultural study of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment for people with hearing impairment.

Cognitive screening tools enable the detection of cognitive impairment, facilitate timely intervention, inform clinical care, and allow long-term planning. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment for people with hearing impairment (MoCA-H) was developed as a reliable cognitive screening tool for people with hearing loss. Using the same methodology across four languages, this study examined whether cultural or linguistic factors affect the performance of the MoCA-H. The current study investigated the performance of the MoCA-H across English, German, French, and Greek language groups (n = 385) controlling for demographic factors known to affect the performance of the MoCA-H. In a multiple regression model accounting for age, sex, and education, cultural-linguistic group accounted for 6.89% of variance in the total MoCA-H score. Differences between languages in mean score of up to 2.6 points were observed. Cultural or linguistic factors have a clinically significant impact on the performance of the MoCA-H such that optimal performance cut points for identification of cognitive impairment derived in English-speaking populations are likely inappropriate for use in non-English speaking populations. To ensure reliable identification of cognitive impairment, it is essential that locally appropriate performance cut points are established for each translation of the MoCA-H.

Scaling neural machine translation to 200 languages

The development of neural techniques has opened up new avenues for research in machine translation. Today, neural machine translation (NMT) systems can leverage highly multilingual capacities and even perform zero-shot translation, delivering promising results in terms of language coverage and quality. However, scaling quality NMT requires large volumes of parallel bilingual data, which are not equally available for the 7,000+ languages in the world1. Focusing on improving the translation qualities of a relatively small group of high-resource languages comes at the expense of directing research attention to low-resource languages, exacerbating digital inequities in the long run. To break this pattern, here we introduce No Language Left Behind—a single massively multilingual model that leverages transfer learning across languages. We developed a conditional computational model based on the Sparsely Gated Mixture of Experts architecture2–7, which we trained on data obtained with new mining techniques tailored for low-resource languages. Furthermore, we devised multiple architectural and training improvements to counteract overfitting while training on thousands of tasks. We evaluated the performance of our model over 40,000 translation directions using tools created specifically for this purpose—an automatic benchmark (FLORES-200), a human evaluation metric (XSTS) and a toxicity detector that covers every language in our model. Compared with the previous state-of-the-art models, our model achieves an average of 44% improvement in translation quality as measured by BLEU. By demonstrating how to scale NMT to 200 languages and making all contributions in this effort freely available for non-commercial use, our work lays important groundwork for the development of a universal translation system.

Does learning from language family help? A case study on a low-resource question-answering task

Abstract Multilingual pre-trained models make it possible to develop natural language processing (NLP) applications for low-resource languages (LRLs) using the model of resource-rich languages (RRLs). However, the structural characteristics of the target languages can impact task-specific learning. In this paper, we investigate the influence of structural diversities of languages on the system’s overall performance. Specifically, we propose a customized approach to leverage task-specific data of low-resource language families via transfer learning from RRL. Our findings are based on question-answering tasks using the XLM-R, mBERT, and IndicBERT transformer models and Indic languages (Hindi, Bengali, and Telugu). On the XQuAD-Hindi dataset, the few-shot learning using Bengali improves the benchmark mBERT (F1/EM) score by +(10.86/7.87) and XLM-R score by +(3.84/4.42). Few-shot learning using Telugu has also improved the mBERT score by +(10.42/7.36) and +(3.04/2.72) for XLM-R. In addition, our model has demonstrated benchmark-compatible performance in a zero-shot setup with single-epoch task learning. This approach can be adapted for other NLP tasks for LRLs.

Language growth in verbal autistic children from 5 to 11 years.

To examine predictors and growth in language for verbal autistic and non-autistic children with/without low language from 4 to 11 years. Receptive and expressive language trajectories were compared in a community sample of 1026 children at ages 5, 7, and 11 years, across four groups: two autistic groups; one with and one without low language; and two non-autistic groups; one with and one without low language. Groups were delineated on baseline assessment at 4 years. Non-autistic and autistic children with low language had lower mean expressive language scores than the non-autistic typical language group (22.26 and 38.53 units lower, respectively, p < 0.001), yet demonstrated faster language growth across 5 to 11 years (p < 0.001 and p = 0.002, respectively). Both groups without low language had similar mean expressive language scores (p = 0.864) and a comparable rate of growth (p = 0.645). Language at 4 years was the only consistent predictor of language at 11 years for autistic children. Results were similar for receptive language in all analyses except there was no significant difference in rate of progress (slope) for the autistic with low language group compared with the typical language group (p = 0.272). Findings suggest early language ability, rather than a diagnosis of autism, is key to determining language growth and outcomes at 11 years in verbal children. Furthermore, children with low language showed developmental acceleration compared with same age peers.

Language Maintenance and Shift in Multilingual Ecologies: A Case Study of Ethnic Minorities in Yunnan

This study aims to address the phenomenon of language maintenance and shift in multilingual ecologies, specifically the ethnic minority communities of Yunnan province in China. The case study focuses on language ecological issues, i.e., language use, language shift, and language preservation, which resulted from language contact and cultural contact between the dominant Chinese communities and the inferior minorities across the region of Yunnan. The smaller language groups have been overlooked in favour of the larger competing languages in previous research concerning linguistic dynamics in Yunnan. By analyzing and evaluating at language competency levels, usage patterns, and skill sets among speakers from the Chinese communities, this paper seeks to restate this omission. Through the integration of language ecology approaches, the survey on everyday use of language, attitudes and transition from questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively pertaining to the impact of evolving sociodemographic factors on language retention and change in the context of Chinese communities. In this study, data regarding linguistic habits were gathered by a questionnaire survey, skill levels, and repertoires within these communities. As part of the research approach, sociolinguistic background data, language repertoires, language usage patterns, and attitudes toward various languages were all examined. The study utilized qualitative data that was collected through semi-structured interviews through the Zoom online platform and direct observations. The research illustrated the dynamic relationship between individual agency and social cause that shapes language attitudes and behaviors of different actors. It is hoped that the research findings contribute to the understanding of linguistic diversity in China, particularly in contemporary multilingual settings which may serve as concrete evidence for policymakers to revitalize ehnic minority languages. The research implies that language change on the formation of individual, group and collective identity, social cohesion within a community, and cultural heritage preservation.

“Then I know Hmong then that way I can eavesdrop on mommy and daddy”: Children’s agency in the heritage language in family language policy

ABSTRACT Framed by family language policy and children’s agency, this multiple case study investigates two Hmong American children’s conceptualization of Hmong and the strategies they develop and utilize in their home. Interviews, artifacts, recorded interactions, and video recorded sessions were collected to gain an understanding of how the children viewed and valued Hmong. The findings reveal that while both children understood Hmong as a family language, they differed in their conceptualization of the utility of Hmong, creating their own investment in the heritage language that drove their practices. Importantly, as they negotiate their respective FLPs, they also influence their younger sibling’s heritage language investment and practices.

Similarities and differences between phonological phenomena in Arabic and Tamil languages: syllable-focused study

Phonological phenomena mean the rules and phonetic characteristics that help to build words and vocabulary, create and use speech, and differentiate between them according to context. Accordingly, in a language there are phonetic units that are studied at non-structual level and structual level. They have an impact on teaching the Arabic language to native speakers in general and to non-native speakers in particular. Errors in phonetic phenomena lead to linguistic errors. The research problem is defined by the question: “Is there a similarity in the syllable system of phonological phenomena between the Arabic and Tamil languages, which are from two different language families? This research aims to clarify the syllabic system of phonological phenomena between Arabic and Tamil languages, and to identify the similarities and differences in syllabic system of phonological phenomena between them. This research relies on qualitative methodology under contrastive descriptive analysis to identify similarities and differences in phonological phenomena between the languages. Secondary data were gathered from books, researches and literary studies. This research titled “Similarities and differences between phonological phenomena in Arabic and Tamil languages: syllable-focused study” finds that the syllables are divided based on length and the closing and opening in the two languages are in the same form. There are no two consecutive consonants at the beginning of the word in them. In terms of differences, the Arabic syllable begins with a consonant only, and there is no Arabic syllable that begins with a vowel, while the Tamil syllable begins with a consonant and a vowel. More than two consonants can not exceed in the middle of the Arabic word, meanwhile can exceed in Tamil. The places where the syllables occur in the two languages are differed according to characteristics of both languages. The Arabic syllable system is very similar to Tamil language.

Impact of a care delivery intervention for patients with socioeconomic disadvantages, in their preferred language of English or Spanish.

e13550 Background: Sinai Health System’s oncology program serves Chicago’s inner city patients with substantial needs for social and primary care, many of whom prefer communication in Spanish. Sinai has implemented a care delivery intervention to address these needs, using the 4R Oncology Model for patient-facing care planning and patient self-management. 4R (Right Info/Care/Patient/Time) has shown significant improvements in the timeliness of care cancer delivery and referrals to cancer care (1). Herein, we implemented the 4R intervention to improve the timeliness of care delivery and referrals to care, focusing on the social and primary care needs of Sinai patients. Methods: Evaluation was conducted by surveying historical control and intervention (4R) cohorts of patients in their preferred language of Spanish or English. The 4R cohort received care at a Sinai medical oncology clinic Apr 2023 - Jan 2024. Control cohort received care Jan 2023 – March 2023. Analyses were conducted using Fisher’s exact test. Results: Survey response: 76% (38/50) in control and 75% (33/44) in 4R cohorts. Participant characteristics were comparable between control and 4R cohorts, respectively: 55%, 58% Hispanic, 42%, 39% Black; 76%, 82% high school education or less; 87%, 97% &lt; $30k annual income; 50%, 55% preferred Spanish; 47%, 45% preferred English. For the total cohorts, all 5 metrics improved between control and 4R, and 4 of the 5 metrics improved significantly (Table). Among Spanish-preferred patients, 3 of the 5 metrics improved significantly, while improvements among English-preferred patients were not statistically significant. Both language groups saw numerical, but not statistically significant improvement in receiving referrals to primary care and meeting all their practical and family needs. Conclusions: The 4R Oncology intervention resulted in significant improvement in time to treatment and referrals to social and primary care in our population of socioeconomically disadvantaged patients with high needs for these services. Patients preferring Spanish benefited at a higher rate than English-preferring patients, indicating that 4R may be an effective method to address the needs of this important patient group. Future efforts will further optimize 4R to address remaining gaps for this group, as well as to improve the delivery of this care for the English-preferred patients. 1. Trosman JCOOP 2021. [Table: see text]

The heavy implications of racial and socioeconomic factors affecting cachexia incidence at gastrointestinal malignancy diagnosis: A single-institution study.

e13694 Background: Cachexia, a complicated metabolic syndrome often related to cancer, is associated with anorexia, decreased quality of life, and increased mortality in advanced disease. The overall prevalence of cachexia ranges from 40% at cancer diagnosis to 70% in advanced disease. Our team aimed to determine whether racial and socioeconomic factors are associated with incidence of cachexia or being underweight at diagnosis (UAD) in patients with gastrointestinal (GI) tract cancer in a diverse, multiethnic urban medical center with high Asian-American representation. Methods: Using ICD-10 codes, adult (age ≥18) patients with diagnosis of primary GI carcinoma between 1/1/2013 to 12/31/2022 were identified. Those with secondary GI involvement from non-GI malignancies were excluded. Patient height, weight at time of diagnosis (weight measured within 4-week window from pathologic diagnosis date), and highest weight within 6 months preceding diagnosis date were recorded. Demographic data included: race, primary language, tumor origin, cancer stage and social deprivation index (SDI). Cachexia was defined as weight loss within a 6-month period of &gt;5% of initial body weight, or weight loss &gt;2% if body mass index (BMI) was &lt;20kg/m2. UAD was defined as BMI &lt;18.5kg/m2 at the time of diagnosis. Results: Of 718 patients with newly diagnosed GI cancer, 366 were analyzable for weight change. 61.2% were male. Race distributions were: 62.0% White, 23.8% Asian, 11.5% Black, and 2.7% Other. The primary languages spoken were: 76.5% English, 19.4% Asian-language, and 4.1% Other. The tumor originated from the following areas: 63.7% lower GI tract, 27.0% upper GI tract, and 8.5% hepato-pancreaticobiliary. 8.5% were UAD and 26.4% met criteria for cachexia at the time of diagnosis. Race and UAD had a significant association; Asians (p=.002) and those speaking Asian languages (p&lt;.001) were more likely to present UAD. However, no significant relationship existed between race (p=.780) or language group (p=.656) on cachexia incidence. Tumor origin groups trended towards differences in cachexia incidence (p=.061). Mean SDI was significantly higher in those who were UAD (p=.026). The SDI was slightly higher among those who had cachexia, but this was not statistically significant (p=.244). Conclusions: GI cancer patients of Asian race, who primarily speak an Asian language, and those with higher SDI are more likely to present UAD, but these same factors are not associated with incidence of cachexia at diagnosis. Additional research is needed to determine if being UAD is associated with development of cachexia later in the illness trajectory or affects clinical outcomes for patient with GI cancer.

A Research Agenda to Support Families of People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities With Intersectional Identities.

Family members provide significant practical and emotional support to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) across the lifespan. In September 2022, the State of the Science Conference on Community Living: Engaging Persons With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities From Underserved Racial, Ethnic, Linguistic, and Cultural Groups in Research was held. This article summarizes the efforts of the workgroup that developed research goals related to supporting families of people with IDD. The focus was on families with intersectional identities and minoritized communities. Recommended areas of future research include exploratory research to better understand the experiences of these families, perspectives of families with intersectional identities about the formal support system, funding for family support and services, and inclusive research strategies.

Sumatran

Abstract: The island of Sumatra and the Barrier Islands lying off its west coast are home to a diverse array of Austronesian languages. For at least a century and a half, a close genetic relationship between many of the non-Malayo-Chamic languages of the region—namely the Batak languages, Simeulue, Nias, Mentawai, and Enggano—has been proposed. Evidence in support of such a group was first thoroughly detailed by Nothofer, who outlined sound correspondences and phonological innovations for a Barrier Island–Batak subgroup. Building upon Nothofer's proposal and recent observations about the languages of Sumatra, this paper proposes a far-reaching language group we call Sumatran, comprising Nothofer's Barrier Island–Batak group as well as Gayo, spoken in northern Sumatra, and Nasal, spoken in southwestern Sumatra. We also provide stronger evidence for the inclusion of Enggano, spoken on the southernmost Barrier Island, which Nothofer only tentatively included. To support this proposal, we outline shared innovations that establish the foundation of what constitutes the Sumatran language subgroup.

Triage Discordance in an Academic Pediatric Emergency Department and Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, and Language for Care.

Minoritized patients are disproportionately represented in low-acuity emergency department (ED) visits in the United States in part caused by lack of timely access to primary and urgent care. However, there is also the possibility that implicit bias during triage could contribute to disproportionate representation of minority groups in low-acuity ED visits. Triage discordance, defined as when ED resources used are different from initial triage score predictions, can be used as a proxy for triage accuracy. Recent data suggest that discordant triage may be common, although little is known about the interaction with race, ethnicity, and language for care. This study aims to determine the prevalence of discordant triage among moderate- and low-acuity pediatric ED encounters and the interaction with patient race, ethnicity, and language for care. We performed a retrospective analysis of pediatric ED encounters from 2019 with Emergency Severity Index (ESI) scores of 3, 4, or 5 at an academic referral hospital. The primary outcome was triage discordance, encompassing overtriage (ESI 3 and 4) and undertriage (ESI 4 and 5). Logistic and multinomial regressions were used to assess discordant triage by race, ethnicity, and language group. Triage discordance occurred in 47% (n = 18,040) of encounters. Black and Hispanic patients had higher likelihood of undertriage for ESI 5 (adjusted odds ratio 1.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.46 and 1.27, 95% CI 1.07-1.52, respectively), and Black patients were more likely to be overtriaged in ESI 3 (1.18, 95% CI 1.09-1.27). Those with a language other than English for care had higher proportions of overtriage for ESI 3 (1.08, 95% CI 1.04-1.12) and undertriage for ESI 5 (1.23, 95% CI 1.11-1.37). We found high rates of triage discordance in our pediatric ED, with significant associations with race, ethnicity, and language for care. Future research should evaluate the source of triage discordance and develop quality improvement efforts to improve equitable care.

New haptic systems for elicit emotions in audio-visual events for hearing impaired people.

In this research we have developed devices for hearing impaired people that can transmit the emotions evoked by music. In this way, we will all achieve the full inclusion of impairment people in all social activities. As this is an issue that goes beyond pure engineering research, it has been necessary to create a multidisciplinary group within the Spanish Centre for Captioning and Audio Description (CESyA), in direct collaboration with the Display and Photonic Applications Research Group (GDAF) and the Human Language and Accessibility Technologies Group (HULAT) of the Carlos III University (UC3M) and the Psychiatry and Applied Communication Departments of the Complutense University of Madrid. For this research, a pair of haptic gloves were developed, which transmit different characteristics extracted from music by means of vibrational sequences, intended to drive an emotional reinforcement. Another device, a “music box”, a vibration box, was also developed from the idea of using vibration as an instrument.Overall, the acceptance of the glove was positive, with an 80% of users accepting the negative video, repeatedly stating in the surveys that they "felt more when the glove vibrated". The music box was also well received. Volunteers felt that the system gave them a pleasant sensation and that they could feel the music. However, some participants associated the vibration with the sensation of an alarm clock, which was expectedly negative.Considering the obtained EEG results, we can conclude that the integration of simple multimodal stimuli, visual and vibrotactile, helps to enhance the activation of emotional processes linked with musical stimulation. It can also be concluded that multimodal visual and vibrotactile stimulation enhances both attentional and emotional processes. These results pave the way for future developments that will allow a hearing-impaired person to fully enjoy an audiovisual event, which will have a great impact on this group.

Event-related Potential Measures of Visual Word Processing in Monolingual and Bilingual Children and Adults: A Focus on Word Frequency Effects.

How does language background influence the neural correlates of visual word recognition in children? To address this question, we used an ERP lexical decision task to examine first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) visual word processing in monolingual and bilingual school-aged children and young adults (n = 123). In particular, we focused on the effects of word frequency (an index of lexical accessibility) on RTs and the N400 ERP component. Behaviorally, we found larger L1 versus L2 word frequency effects among bilingual children, driven by faster and more accurate responses to higher-frequency words (no other language or age group differences were observed). Neurophysiologically, we found larger L1 word frequency effects in bilinguals versus monolinguals (across both age groups), reflected in more negative ERP amplitudes to lower-frequency words. However, the bilingual groups processed L1 and L2 words similarly, despite lower levels of subjective and objective L2 proficiency. Taken together, our findings suggest that divided L1 experience (but not L2 experience) influences the neural correlates of visual word recognition across childhood and adulthood.

Peculiarities of teaching a second/third foreign language based on English

Problem. The article deals with general issues relating to the main features of teaching a second or third foreign language (German and French, based on English) to students specializing in applied linguistics. A short list of similarities and differences between English, German and French in the context of their learning is given. This study presents an overview of the concept of multilingual education and analyses the main methods of teaching a third language. The problems associated with teaching a second foreign language are not sufficiently revealed, as this discipline is not very widespread in non-language educational institutions. It generally holds that the methodology of teaching a second foreign language does not differ from that of teaching a first foreign language, except that the second language is taught to a lesser extent. This approach does not take into account a number of characteristics that affect the effectiveness of learning the subject. Goal. The aim is to present the main features of teaching the second/third foreign language (German and French based on previously learnt English) to students majoring in Applied Linguistics. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to find more effective methods of teaching a second foreign language. Methodology. To achieve this goal, a number of research methods were used: theoretical analysis and generalization of pedagogical and methodological sources on the issues of third language teaching didactics and the concept of multilingual education. The term «multilingualism» is used in official European terminology to refer to both the linguistic diversity of a society and the ability of a person to speak several languages. The concept of "multilingual education" applies to both the development of an individual language repertoire and to «plurilingual education» i.e., education in a context of linguistic and cultural diversity. English, German and French have many things in common: Latin spelling and lexical similarities. All three languages contain many cognates - words that are similar in spelling and pronunciation and mean the same thing. All of these languages have a subject-verb-object syntactic structure. Consequently, the main problems in learning a second/third language after learning English, in the context of three foreign languages in contact with the mother tongue, are interference not only from the mother tongue but also from the second/third language, as well as positive language transfer, given that they both belong to the same Roman language group. Originality. The modern didactic approaches to multilingualism cause a major change not only in the way we teach, but also in the way we learn, develop curricula, and train future professionals. Practical value. The integration of work on language representation and multilingual learning, as well as explaining the plurilingual didactic approach to students, will make the language learning process more focused on students' real skills, more flexible and more creative.

Spatial ideologies on official bilingualism and co-located schools in Finland and South Tyrol, Italy

In countries with several official languages, language separation often remains a structural principle in institutional education. Co-located schools, in which two autonomously administered schools with different languages of instruction share a physical space, may challenge this separation. Such schools have existed for a long time, but increasingly insert themselves into an architectural trend that leans toward multipurpose spaces. In this paper, we utilize previous research to analyze policy discourses and educational practices that arise around bilingualism in Finland and the Italian province of South Tyrol. We introduce and analyze co-located schools through the notion of spatial ideologies, i.e. beliefs about the connection between language policies and the material organization of space. We show that in both contexts, the separation of the official languages – Finnish and Swedish in Finland and Italian and German in most of South Tyrol – is reconstructed through policy, public discourse, and material practices. The educational system maintains separate tracks for the recognized language groups. While attempts to deconstruct the parallel system are often deemed problematic, the premise of language separation is also increasingly questioned and renegotiated. Therefore, co-located schools can be viewed as contested spaces where discourses and practices promoting linguistic diversity but also parallel monolingualism circulate.

Intentionality and Adaptability in Family Language Policy

Abstract Heritage language maintenance is affected by many different factors. Particularly for families in subtractive bilingual environments, it is crucial to have a well-defined family language policy (FLP). Even with an established FLP, major disruptions and changes, as well as smaller shifts in families’ lives, can significantly affect children’s multilingual development and threaten heritage language maintenance. These shifts can be sudden or gradual. This study focuses on the importance of bringing the need for a FLP into multilingual families’ awareness and explores the challenges of sustaining it. More specifically, this study uses two parents’ reflections regarding their own families’ language policies to gain a better understanding of the challenges and to make recommendations to other families. It is guided by the following questions: To what extent are parents aware of their family’s multilingual habits and policies? How can parents support their children’s heritage language development in the face of significant disruptions or even subtle life changes? Two linguists raising multilingual children in different contexts agreed to become accountability partners to gain a better understanding of their own dynamic situations and support each other to become more intentional in their family multilingual development. Data were collected over a six-month period. Findings suggest that intentionality increased due to the accountability partnership. Furthermore, this study challenged several of the researchers’ assumptions, particularly regarding the amount of heritage language spoken, how transitions affect the family, what it takes for linguistic changes to occur, and the ease of tracking one’s own family’s linguistic habits. This study suggests that having a FLP is not sufficient, but that it requires periodic updating, and changes need to be implemented to match the evolving plan.