Family Language Planning in Xiaoshan District

【Abstract】Language planning is an important area that most scholars tend to consider， and family language planning has been a hot issue recently. This study discuss types of family language planning in Xiaoshan District and consider factors， such as language ideology， language practices， language management， language environment， contributing to family language planning.

【Key words】family language planning； language ideology； language practices； language management

【作者簡介】王融，浙江师范大学。

1. Introduction

Language planning is essential in sociolinguistics. Uriel Weinreich （2006： 356）first put forward the concept of language planning which was “a government authorized and conscious effort to alter languages function in a society for the purpose of solving communication problems.” With the development of society， scholars and researchers have considered language planning in different fields， such as education， community and so on. At present， family language planning which refers to the relevant plan， belief and attitude influencing the use of language in family has been a hot issue. （Wang Ling， 2016： 112）

2. Literature Review

With the development of society， family language planning becomes important in research. Some studies put emphasis on the family language planning in immigrant family， like researches designed by Stefanie Pillai， Wen-Yi Soh， and Angela S. Kajita （2014） and Tang Xiaojuan （2015）. Besides， there are also some studies emphasize on dialects including language used by minorities in China and Mandarin in family language planning， like Ba Zhanlong （2015） s study on directions to establish bilingual family. Moreover， other scholars and researchers such as Wang Ling （2016）， Yu Weiqi and Yang Jingyan （2016） think highly of factors that may affect the language use in family language planning.

Indeed， these studies all give support to the importance of family language planning. However， these studies just focused on the common situation for all family， they did not have a close approach different varieties of family language planning. Therefore， based on them， the thesis will investigate different kind of family language planning in Xiaoshan District.

3. Theoretic Framework

The studies above are all under the directions of Spolsky s language planning model. Hence the thesis， including the processes of designing questionnaires， will be under the guidance of it. According to Splosky （2004）， language ideology， language practices and language management are related to family language planning. Language ideology includes peoples attitude. Language practices refers to the extent to the usage of language. And language management is connected with choices and decisions made in language use.

4. Research Methodology

4.1 Research Questions

The main purposes of the whole thesis are to deal with two questions： （1） what kind of family language planning held by different families； （2） what factors influencing on family language planning.

4.2 Participants

In this study， the main participants are families in Xiaoshan District that have young people who were born in 1980s and 1990s. After collecting questionnaires， there are 112 families take part in this study： 29 families with young people born in 1980s and 83 families with young people in 1990s.

5. Results

5.1 An Overview of Family Language Planning

According to the result， among 112 families， there are three kinds of family language planning. The first is using dialect for most of time， which is about 70% in this survey. The second is sometimes using dialect and sometimes using Mandarin is about 15 %. The last is mostly using Mandarin at home which is about 15%.

5.2 Factors on Family Language Planning

5.2.1 Language Ideology

Language ideology includes beliefs and attitude. Most of studies have already focused on the attitude and beliefs of parents. But researchers like Prem Phyak and Thuy Thi Ngoc Bui s study （2014） focused on the ideology of youth. Meanwhile， Zhao Shouhui and Liu Yongbing （2008） studied family language on language expectation of family. Therefore， parents and young peoples attitude and expectation will be discussed.

5.2.1.1 Attitude

For attitude， the result indicates that 5 young people think dialect is more important than Mandarin， and more than half of them will use more dialect. 10 young people hold that Mandarin is more important， but most of them still use more dialect. In this survey， 91 young people think dialect and Mandarin are both important， but moat of them will choose to use more dialect with their parents. Furthermore， 5 young people who think dialect is more important and 10 young people who hold that Mandarin is more important are chosen to be analyzed. With the statistical analysis， young people s attitude has little connection with language use.

Besides， 30 pairs of parents hold the idea that dialect is more important and more than half of them tend to use more dialect. There are 7 pairs of parents with the opinion that Mandarin is more important. Also， 50 pairs of parents think that Mandarin and dialect are both important. Among these parents， more than half choose to use more dialect in family language planning， the number of using mixture of dialect and Mandarin and using more Mandarin are the same. In order to analysis the correlation between parents attitude and language use， 30 families that think dialect is more important and 7 families holding Mandarin is more important are chosen. The result shows that the correlation between parents attitude and language use is more significant （P=0.002）. Therefore， parents attitude will influence family language planning will also influence young people s attitude.

In short， parents attitude plays an important part in family language planning， while young people s attitude have less influence.

5.2.1.2 Expectation

Here the expectation are regarded as the goal of mastering language. For young people s expectation， 7 young people want to master dialect， and more than half of them use dialect mostly. 18 young people think they should master Mandarin， and 50% of them use dialect most， and the other half of them choose to use the mixture of dialect and Mandarin or use more Mandarin. Most of young people believe that they should master both dialect and Mandarin. Among these young people， they may tend to use more dialect. And with the correlation analysis， the correlation between young people s expectation and language use is less significant. Meanwhile， for parents expectation， there are 4 pairs of parents with the idea that young people should master dialect， and only one of them uses more Mandarin. 13 pairs of parents think that young people should master Mandarin， but only two pairs of parents will use more Mandarin and more than 50% parents chose to use more dialect or use the mixture of dialect and Mandarin. Most of parents believe young people should master both dialect and Mandarin， for these parents， 73% of them tend to use of dialect more， 13% of them will use the mixture of dialect and Mandarin， and another 13% parents will use Mandarin mostly. According to the correlation analysis， parents expectation also have little connection with family language use.

Although the relationship between expectation and family language planning is not distinct， the relationship between parents expectation and young people s expectation is still significant， which is similar to the attitude.

In conclusion， parents ideology is bounded with young people s closely. And parents attitude is more important than young people s in family language planning . But the expectation both of young people and parents has little connection with family language planning.

5.2.2 Language Practices

Language practices always means that family member tend to choose which language in daily use. In this study， the more frequent families watch dialect program， the more possible language planning will be using more dialect. In short， language practices may have a connection with family language planning.

5.2.3 Language Management

Language management is linked with the actions taken by authority in family. Family members especially parents will have some requirement or some strategies when using language. The result indicates that 96 pairs of parents have no specific requirement of language use. 12 pairs of parents encourage young people to use more dialect， and among these families， the family language planning of 10 families is using dialect more. If parents want more Mandarin at home， 67% families use sometimes Mandarin and sometimes dialect and 33% families prefer to using more Mandarin. According to it， the requirement of parents will be related to their family language planning.

The first language acquisition can be regarded as one of strategies taken by parents in family language planning. As shown in the result， 65 young people learn dialect at first. And among these family， 82% of families plan to use more dialect. Also 19 young people acquire Mandarin as their first language. In these families， 47% families use more Mandarin， 21% families sometime use Mandarin and sometimes use dialect and only 32% families use dialect more.

All in all， the requirement of parents and the first language acquisition show their connection with family language planning in this study. Language management still plays an important role in family language planning.

5.2.4 Language Environment

Since 1955， China has been devoted to popularizing Mandarin， especially for the east of China. In this study， 14 families think that there is no influence by popularizing Mandarin， and among them， 71% families use mixture of Mandarin and dialect or use Mandarin for most of time. Also， there are 33 families that obtain family language planning of using more dialect. For these families， they also think that popularizing Mandarin have no influence on family language planning. However， 60 families believe that popularizing Mandarin has influenced their family language planning， because they may tend to use more Mandarin than before.

In a short conclusion， the influence of language environment is always on family language planning that uses dialect most of time and the language environment around the family also will make some change in family language planning.

5.2.5 Other Factors

In He He and Chen XInren s study （2015）， they discussed parentseducation background effecting on language planning. And in this study， the result indicates that if parents have higher educational background， they will tend to decide family language planning to use more Mandarin than dialect.

Indeed， family structure are mentioned in the result. If there are the old in family， the whole family prefers to using more dialect than Mandarin. Also if there are some family members come from other areas， the family language planning will be using Mandarin for most of time.

6. Conclusions

6.1 Findings

With analysis， there are three varieties of family language planning in Xiaoshan District. The most popular one is using more dialect. Indeed， this research indicates that parents play an essential part in family language planning especially for their attitude. Meanwhile， language practices， managements and environment also lead to different decisions of family language planning， which indicates family language planning is a more complex and hard decision to make.

6.2 Implications

This study may inform people both parents and young people to increase their awareness of family language planning， and to consider what kind of family language planning are better for own family. As parents， they should realize their influence on children. As for young people， they should consider family language planning with their parents. There is no doubt that people should keep in mind that family language planning should be placed at more conspicuous position.

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