Issues of the Language Policy of Families With Ukrainian Origin in the Estonian Educational Space

Abstract

The article addresses the family language policies of multilingual families (FLPs) with Ukrainian roots, describing, among others, the language practices of families in different areas. The analysis of the study is based on semi-structured interviews with newly arrived Ukrainian immigrants living in Tallinn. The language ideologies of families in relation to the choice of languages of education are examined. The secondary objective is to find the reasons why some families manage to maintain their national language and culture and others do not. The article shows that the desire to integrate into Estonian society has influenced the choice of language of instruction of the school among newly arrived immigrant parents, whereas, depending on different cases, the choice was both Estonian and Russian-language school. The article also shows the language management of parents of the studied families implemented with a view to maintaining their language of origin, among which, for example, participation in the Sunday school for the study of Ukrainian language and culture is also in focus alongside the language of instruction in a general education school.

Family language policy in families of Ukrainian origin: maintaining ties to heritage and fostering well-being

“…M4 admits than while living in Estonia "it has been hard to prove to her that Ukrainian is an interesting language which may become useful in her life". This case shows clearly how the drastic changes in living and language environment may change language preferences (see also Küün 2022).…”

“…Thus, the sociolinguistic background surrounding the family should certainly not be underestimated in the study of FLP (see e.g. Lazdiņa & Marten 2021, see also Küün 2022), and in this article as well I have taken this principle into account when analyzing the FLP of the families studied.…”

“…Another important aspect in favor of FLP flexibility is one that S. Wilson (2020) noticed based on his research: namely, if corrections are made in the case of a nonfunctional rigid FLP, children from bilingual or multilingual families should be given a greater opportunity to create their own cultural identity (see also Kheirkhah 2016, Küün 2022. Although parents may wish for their children's linguistic beliefs and cultural identity to coincide unconditionally with their own and with those of their ancestors, there is no guarantee that this will indeed be so (see, for example, Duff 2015, see also Küün 2022), especially in today's mobile and globalized world. At the same time, it has been noted that the other extremeproviding children too little input in their heritage language within a family -may result in the risk that younger members of new immigrant families in particular lose part of their cultural identity when they arrive in the destination country (De Houwer 2013).…”

“…Kubiliūtė 2021). In addition, important factors influencing the development of FLP, including socio-cultural, economic, and historical-political circumstances, cannot be ignored (Curdt-Christiansen 2018, Lazdiņa & Marten 2021, Tseng 2020, see also Küün 2022). Thus, the sociolinguistic background surrounding the family should certainly not be underestimated in the study of FLP (see e.g.…”

“…

Ukrainians constitute the third largest ethnic group in Estonia (The Population and Housing Census, 2011). In the same time, it regrettably becomes evident that the maintaining of the language and culture of the Ukrainian minority living in Estonia and their attitudes towards their own heritage language have hardly been studied at all (see also Küün, 2022). This study seeks to fill mentioned gap by adding information on the family language policy practiced by the Ukrainians living in the Republic of Estonia to the field of research concerned with family language policy (FLP) and transmission of the heritage language and culture.

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