“It’s My Language, My Culture, and it’s Personal!” Migrant Mothers’ Experience of Language Use and Identity Change in Their Relationship With Their Children: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Abstract

The question of how migrants’ language use affects their ethnic identity has received considerable attention in the literature. There is, however, little understanding of how this relationship manifests or is negotiated in interethnic families. This article presents an in-depth exploration of Spanish mothers’ experiences of Spanish- and English-language interactions with their English-born children. Semistructured interviews were conducted with Spanish mothers living in Britain in interethnic partnerships and transcripts were subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis. Analysis reveals a process of identity change where participants’ shifting ethnic identifications with host and heritage culture is intimately related to their language use with their children. Pivotal to this process is the participants’ need to maintain their “Spanish mother” identity, a desire that can only be fulfilled by transferring their heritage language to their children and speaking it with them. Findings reveal how this dynamic affects perception of family roles, relationship quality, and psychological well-being.

Javanese Language as an Ethnic Identity Marker Among Multilingual Families in Indonesia

“…This study has also identified inconsistencies between positive attitudes and actual practices where nearly a half of the parents (47%) do not use Javanese in child-parent communication (See the red bar in Figure 4). This is consistent with findings from immigrant families where transmitting a heritage language also becomes a daily struggle due to social change (Farr et al, 2018). Taking a reflection on these findings, I argue that family should be attributed as a complementary element to ethnolinguistic vitality in the context of continuous use of heritage and ethnic languages.…”

“…Indicated by the red bar in Figure 2, 69% perceived lack of Javanese proficiency would definitely determine their self-belonging. Along similar lines, Farr et al (2018) maintained that heritage language fluency serves as a means of indexing ethnic memberships and facilitates a sense of belonging. To put it differently, group feelings are often more easily articulated when using the group's own language.…”

“…In addition, their study figured out that ethnic identification increased in adolescent, but heritage language preference decreased with age. In the UK setting, Farr, Blenkiron, Harris, and Smith (2018) illustrated a shift of ethnic identity construction among interethnic families with respect to their heritage language use in child-parent communication. These major works have provided a body of evidence on the link between heritage language and ethnic identity construction as well as how this linkage was translated into an inter-generational transmission of heritage language in migrant settings.…”

Shared Language Erosion: Rethinking Immigrant Family Communication and Impacts on Youth Development

“…Studying the impact of family communication on the development of immigrant adolescents may help explain the notorious decline in physical, mental, and behavioral health in second-and third-generation immigrants relative to first-generation immigrants, something that has been termed the immigrant paradox [8]. A growing body of research points to communication difficulties between immigrant parents and their adolescent children (e.g., [9][10][11][12][13]), but the impact of these difficulties on adolescent development remains an understudied area of research. A new way of conceptualizing how family risk and resilience might interact to impact adolescent development in immigrant families is a phenomenon we are calling Shared Language Erosion.…”

Classification of Lingual Forms on the Lexicon of Kuburan in the Toraja People

“…It is because the culture formed in human's mind can be understood through language. The linguistic meaning from a language truly can be determined by the context of culture where that language exists (Clayton, 2017;Farr, Blenkiron, Harris, & Smith, 2018;Pennycook, 2017). Therefore, in a language especially in this case, a lexicon has various perspectives or perceptions from the speakers from the culture, ideology, and others.…”