“I want her to be able to think in English”: challenges to heritage language maintenance in a monolingual society

Abstract

Abstract Filipino migrants are the fifth largest migrant community in Australia. Filipino migration to the country has been driven by socioeconomic and political factors in both the Philippines and Australia. Against this context, this paper investigates heritage language maintenance practices of Filipino migrant families by using a 2019 interview-based research study with five Filipino migrant families residing in Sydney. The five families were selected based on two criteria: the region in the Philippines where they came from and having a focal child in primary school. The first criterion captured participants from different Philippine linguistic background, while the second ensured a common denominator across the five families that impacts on heritage language practices. Employing Family Language Policy (FLP) as a lens for analysis, the study shows three key findings: (1) the families came to Australia with multilingual repertoires; (2) the parents’ language beliefs, mostly motivated by economic and social pressures attached to their ability to speak English well, dictated the family language practices in the home; and (3) their understanding of language learning plays a significant role in their FLP. This research is significant in terms of its contribution to advocacy and sociolinguistic research on heritage language maintenance among Filipino migrants (199).