Determinants of emotional language use preferences of ethnolinguistic minority children in Antwerp, Belgium

Abstract

Within multilingual families, the emotionality of languages can impact individual and family wellbeing. But few studies have investigated the influence of the familial linguistic context in shaping emotional language use preferences. Guided by the Family Language Policy framework, we consider how the language use and the language attitudes of parents, siblings and children themselves affect the emotional language use preferences of children, independent of children's proficiencies in their heritage (HL) and institutional (IL) languages. We analyse unique data from over 500 primary school children (aged 10 to 12) from Moroccan, Turkish, Eastern-European and mixed descent living in Antwerp, the largest Dutch-speaking city of Belgium. We find that children's emotional preferences are strongly affected by their proficiency in the heritage language but not their proficiency in Dutch, by their parents' and siblings' language practices but not their own practice and by children's attitudes about the relative importance of HL and IL. Overall, the results suggest that emotional language preferences of children reflect children's own acculturation process as well as that of their families.

A deliberate language policy or a perceived lack of agency: Heritage language maintenance in the Polish community in Melbourne

“…In intimate situations or contexts inducing emotions, the use of Polish in the interaction was immediately provoked. The results should not be surprising, because earlier studies by De Houwer (2007), Pavlenko (2012), Kopeliovich (2013) and Dekeyser and Agirdag (2018) confirmed that emotional language preferences of children reflect their acculturation process as well as that of their parents.…”

Primary school children's conflicted emotions about using their heritage languages in multilingual classroom tasks

“…Banning heritage languages to enhance the learning of the language of instruction might not be the best way to academic success for heritage language speakers. Banning heritage languages may send a negative message to children and parents about their linguistic identity, as well as have a negative impact on the emotional associations that heritage language learners may have with their languages (Dekeyser & Agirdag, 2021; Jordens, 2016). If the heritage languages are not perceived to be welcome in the classroom and at school, feelings of insecurity and anxiety may arise when using those languages, affecting students’ willingness to use them, thus hindering their further development and one's emotional experiences with the heritage languages (MacIntyre, 2017).…”

“…Also, the significant association between fathers’ but not mothers’ use of Dutch and children's preference for Dutch when feeling sad could hint at possible moderating effects of specific parenting practices (e.g., punishments versus responsiveness) between parental language practice and children's emotional language preferences. (Dekeyser & Agirdag, 2021, pp. 902−903)…”