Language practices and policies of Singaporean-Japanese families in Singapore

Francesco Cavallaro, Yan Kang Tan, Wenhan Xie and Bee Chin Ng
Nanyang Technological University
Abstract

The few studies on Family Language Policy in Singapore (FLP) have generally focused on FLP in local and immigrant Chinese families. This article explores language policies that seem to undergird Singaporean-Japanese families’ language practices. In-depth interviews and observations with five such families showed that Japanese only functions as the language of communication between the Japanese parents and their children if parents have invoked particular language policies to support its transmission and use at home. For most families, English was the main medium of communication among family members. Language policies and practices in these families were heavily influenced by the value emplaced on each language within the parents’ linguistic repertoire and their beliefs regarding language learning.

Keywords:
Publication history

Date received: 28 March 2021

Date accepted: 24 August 2022

Published online: 27 March 2023

Table of contents

The burgeoning field of studies examining Family Language Policy (FLP) that once focused on ‘typical’ family units and nuclear families has increasingly called for greater diversity in the types of families being studied. This paper answers the call by shedding light on the negotiation and enactment of FLP in families with binational parents – parents from two different nationalities. With binational marriages becoming a growing global phenomenon, binational families are a specific group of interest because binational parents must make very clear decisions about their children’s language repertoires they wish to support as they will have direct consequences for their future.

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