Overview of Successful Family Language Policy Strategies

Abstract

Summary In today's world, when the global movement occurs, there are more and more mixed families interacting in two or more languages. Children born in such families have the opportunity to learn the mother tongues of both parents and become bilingual or multilingual. Whether this can work often depends on the family language policy. The latter is often influenced by a variety of factors, therefore its success depends not only on internal choices, but also partly on external factors. This article provides an overview of research by various authors, which present family language policy strategies. The aim of the study is to find the factors that determine the choice of those strategies and their success. The study revealed that family language policies are influenced both by the family's internal choices, for example, the desire that the children would know the language of one parent or both parents, that they would talk to relatives, would know parents’ culture through language, and by external factors, such as the norms of the society in which they live, integration processes or the conditions for learning the language. A key element in determining the success of family language policy is the consistent adherence to one or more of the strategies chosen.