Language Socialization in the home and Minority Language Revitalization in Europe
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LANGUAGE SOCIALIZATION IN THE HOME AND MINORITY LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION IN EUROPE
INTRODUCTION
Reviewing the research literature on home language socialization in the context of minority language revitalization in Europe is not a straightforward task. The body of language socialization research that has developed over the last 20 years (see Ochs and Schieffelin, Language Socialization: An Historical Overview, Volume 8), by North American scholars in particular, is currently very limited in the European context. The issue of minority language reproduction in the home, particularly with regard to inter-generational language practices is, nevertheless, a crucial issue for all the European autochthonous and minority language groups whose vitality is, to a greater or lesser degree, under threat at the turn of the twenty-first century (Table 1). This anxiety over diminishing inter-generational language use has been addressed academically from a number of diverse theoretical perspectives by researchers in Europe. The most common of these are quantitative sociolinguistic surveys based upon census statistics and other language use surveys carried out either at the pan-European level (e.g. Euromosaic study, OPEC 1996) or on a national/regional basis (e.g. Catalonia, Ireland, Wales). Other research has been conducted within a (bilingual) language acquisition framework and many case studies of individual families appear in books giving advice to parents and educators on how to raise children bilingually/multilingually (e.g. Hoffman, 1985; Saunders, 1988). However, very little detailed work in the ‘language socialization’ tradition has been carried out on the language practices of the various minority language groups in Europe which are concerned with their language maintenance and revitalization. In the absence, hitherto, of much of a European contribution to language socialization research, this chapter describes how such a research perspective could provide valuable insights into the dynamics of intergenerational language practices and so provide useful evidence for European policy makers and practitioners. We begin this chapter, with a review of Joshua Fishman’s contribution to the field of minority language revitalization. Fishman’s contribution has been very influential in guiding language policy and language planning in the European P. A. Duff and N. H. Hornberger (eds), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd Edition, Volume 8: Language Socialization, 127–143. #2008 Springer Science+Business Media LLC.
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D E L Y T H M O R R I S A N D K AT H R Y N J O N E S
Table 1 Minority Language Reproduction Within the Family Cluster
Language reproduction within the family categories
A
Virtually all young families speak their language with offspring as do most minority language speakers in mixed families
Swedish in Finland, Catalan in Catalonia, German in Belgium, German in Italy, Luxembourgish, and Turkish in Greece
B
Some young families speak their language with offspring, but mainly the older generation; a few minor
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