Family multilingualism: Language practices and ideologies of Brazilian-Norwegian families in Norway

Abstract

This thesis examines the interconnections between language practices and ideologies of Brazilian-Norwegian families in Oslo, Norway. Resulting from a three-year ethnographically oriented sociolinguistic project (2017-2019), the thesis is based on data generated through the employment of various methods: online questionnaire, semi-structured interview, self-recording, and participant observation. Contributions to research on multilingual families are as follows: First, I claim that certain parental discourse strategies might, contrary to parental expectations, restrict the child’s use of their emerging linguistic repertoire. I also suggest that a translanguaging lens is helpful to problematise the notion of one-person-one-language, typically conceived of as a strategy employed by parents. Instead, the notion of one-person-one-language-one-nation is put forth as an ideology that might inform parental language practices. Moreover, I suggest that drawing on a revisited notion of linguistic repertoire can be helpful to understand the role of affect in parent-child multilingual interactions. It also elucidates the discursive positioning of children by parents in expected social roles as family members mind mundane tasks and familial bonds are interactionally constructed. Finally, I argue that drawing on a southern perspective provides robust theoretical grounding to examine the material and discursive structures of differentiation parents have to navigate in intercultural encounters. I then discuss the implications of the processes to language practices in the home. Drawing on recent conceptualisations of language and on a southern perspective reframes debates about how transnational practices, identity construction, and family-making can shape the language practices of families. In particular, it attends to issues concerning the hierarchisation of social class, gender and race/ethnicity, and advances knowledge in the direction of understanding language as a socio-historical construct.