The Role of Family Language Policy in Reversing Intergenerational Language Shift in the Case of Jordanian Expatriate Families in Dubai
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Date
2024-09
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The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
This study explores the problem of Intergenerational Language Shift (ILS) from Arabic to English amongst second-generation bilingual children from Jordanian expatriate parents’ perspective. It seeks to unravel the crucial role that Family Language Policy (FLP), if it exists, plays in reversing this language shift and preserving the Arabic language and identity from a sociolinguistic standpoint. The research is underpinned by Fishman’s Language Shift Theory (LS) and Spolsky’s Family Language Policy Theory (FLP). The study applied a qualitative cross-sectional case study. It employed a qualitative multimethod approach to gather and corroborate the data from three participant groups: the preexisting textual data was retrieved from postings of concerned Jordanian mothers in a Facebook group for six years, focus group discussions of Jordanian school educators contributed insights about the problem of ILS and corroborated the findings from a different vantage point, parents in four volunteer Jordanian families were interviewed and shared their perceptions, language practices, and strategies to reverse the ILS. The parent interviews were supported by audio recordings of their children’s natural speech. This study conducted a content analysis of mothers’ digital postings, and a thematic analysis of the educators’ focus groups and parents’ interviews using NVivo Software. It also employed a linguistic analysis of children’s natural speech, focusing on Codeswitching (CS) as a marker of LS. Results showed that this speech community is fully aware of the phenomenon of ILS to English in the case of the second generation. Mothers, educators, and parents placed significant value on additive bilingualism while reflecting the profound value of their mother tongue for communication at home and connecting with their parents, speech community, extended family, Arab heritage, Muslim faith, ethnic group, and homeland. Additionally, the interviewed parents were proactive in implementing their family language policies to reverse this ILS, although their level of effort and time commitment varied at times to achieve additive bilingualism where Arabic remains strong in their bilingual children. Thus, this study unraveled several implications of the subtractive model and LS on expatriate Jordanian children as part of the larger Arabic-speaking expatriates in Dubai. Despite its limited sample size and context, this study may hold relevance for many Arabic-speaking expatriates in the UAE, GCC, and the broader Arab world. Additionally, it contributes to the existing literature on FLP, LS, bilingualism, and Arabic sociolinguistics.
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Keywords
transformational leadership, transactional leadership, laissez-faire leadership, employee incentives, employee agility, compensation, recognition, rewards, UAE