Abstract

This study examines language learning practices that are used to organize minority language training embedded in mundane family activities. The data come from a video-ethnographic study in three Swedish multilingual families with preschool children where mothers speak Russian. An analytical focus is on the organization and accomplishments of so-called home language lessons and language workout as their variety in multilingual family talk. This language learning practice resembles common language socialization practices in middle-class families as it mobilizes a teacher talk register. However, it is specific in its sequential organization and consistent employment of a parent talk register, which dialectically invokes intimate and educational, task- and language-oriented dimensions. The findings reveal that realization of the parental language policy to support heritage language development rests not only on consistent language choice, but also on parental understanding of the language learning process and who child is as a speaker vis-à-vis parent.

Key words: language workout, home language lesson, bilingual, family interaction, language ideology, family language policy

Bio note

Olga Fernandes is a doctoral student at the Department of Education, Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research concerns linguistic ethnography and family interaction, with a special focus on multilingual practices, language socialization and learning, relational and affective aspects of family life.