Unpacking children’s perspectives of multilingualism through language portraits: insights from a Polish pre-school in Australia

ABSTRACT

This paper delves into the dynamics of language-based agency of six-year-old children raised in transnational families in Australia. The members of the focal group are four pre-schoolers, who while creating language portraits, offer insights into the truncated diversity of their linguistic repertoires. Through extent, position, choice of colour, use of symbols, and the accompanying written comments, the children communicate information about home language maintenance. Concomitant interviews unfold the overall picture of family language policies of the studied participants. Unsurprisingly, although the children’s opinions are shaped or even persuaded by their parents’ discourses, and considering the fact that parents do not normally discuss their family language policies with them, the young participants provide valuable and reliable perspectives on language management in their homes. Further, they exhibit agency in their family language policies, which are yet to be deliberated in terms of a multi-actor construct, whereby all family members have their own voices. That said, children exercise a freedom of language choice despite the conscious or unconscious linguistic efforts of their parents, which can be regarded as a manner of negotiating and impacting language use within the family.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational families
• agency
• language portraits
• family language policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).