“When he was born, I decided to give him an opportunity to speak Russian”: a perspective on family language policy and single parenting (Vorobeva)
Methodologically this dissertation is guided by nexus analysis which consists of three steps engaging, navigating, and changing. The data includes of interviews with eight mothers and video-recorded interactions from two families.
The study demonstrates that the families tend to (re)negotiate their kinships which, in turn, serve as a resource for their family language policies. Although the mothers tend to adhere to Russian when speaking with their children, they also create space for using their linguistic repertoires.
The findings point to the increasing role of Finnish in the families and underline that the status of the heritage language class (Russian in the case of the participant families) serves as a root cause for family tensions during a legal dispute on the custody arrangements between divorced parents. In a single-parent family, it results in discursive contradictions, where the mother’s investment in supporting the heritage language does not align with its outcome as valued by society.
“The findings point to the need to consider not only the family languages but family languages and family makeup in the language education policy. This may also be useful for professionals who work with bilingual families” – says Polina Vorobeva. “Otherwise, the recommendations about bilingual upbringing and policy decisions related to heritage language support are filtered through an assumption that family is a fixed nuclear unit.” – she continues.
Besides that, the study emphasizes that single mothers find ways to support their children’s bilingualism despite obstacles and struggles.
MA Polina Vorobeva defends her doctoral dissertation in Applied Linguistics "When he was born, I decided to give him an opportunity to speak Russian: a nexus analytical perspective on family language policy and single parenting" 13.5.2024 at 5 PM, in S212. Opponent is Professor Kendall A. King (University of Minnesota) and Custos Professor Åsa Palviainen (Ģֱ).
The event can be followed online via this link:
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Bio:
Polina Vorobeva is currently a university teacher in Russian language and culture. Her research interests lie in the field of multilingualism and sociolinguistics in a broad sense and family multilingualism more specifically. She uses discourse-oriented and nexus analytic approaches in her work. Her PhD work was supported by the Department of Language and Communication studies and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ģֱ.
