Language in the Bilingual Family: A Study of Policy

Among immigrant communities in the United States, the shift from heritage language dominance to bilingualism to English monolingualism is a well established phenomenon. While a number of influences outside the home are known to play an important role in this process, factors inside the home are inarguably influential but largely mysterious. This book sheds light on this area through an examination of language policy, ideology, and shift among fifteen Iranian families in the Washington, DC area. A series of personal interviews explores a range of topics, including parents desired language outcomes, motivations, decision-making processes, management tactics, language ideologies, and language shifts. The findings of this study illustrate how, just as the language policies of large institutions are shaped by language ideologies, so too are the language policies of families, and smooth implementation in neither domain is guaranteed. Furthermore, the data presented in this work offer a view of language shift from the bottom up, an inside perspective that has been widely called for in the field but seldom provided.