The article entitled “Język i tożsamość w rodzinie transnarodowej: studium

przypadku”, written by Emilia Wąsikiewicz-Firlej”, addresses the issue of the

formation of language and identity in a child who grows up in a multilingual and
transnational family. The author adopted the perspective of the holistic model of
family language policy (FLP), developed by Spolsky in 2004.

FLP highlights the actual language use of a child, which is influenced by parents-
their decisions, language learning strategies and their linguistic ideology, as well as
the overall socio-cultural context. The Spolskys’ FLP assumes three elements of
language policy: linguistic practices (behaviours), beliefs and ideologies about
language, and language management (activities encouraging practice). The aspect
related to the attitudes and beliefs of parents are linguistic ideology, which relates to
one's own offspring in a specific socio-cultural context, and the naive theory, which
defines universal beliefs and attitudes about multilingualism, created on the basis of
individual experiences and has a significant impact on the creation of a specific
language policy in a given family. The author emphasizes that the child also shapes
and negotiates FLP because it plays an active role in society.

The article describes the case of a family consisting of a Polish father, a Japanese
mother and their 6-year-old daughter Maja, who was born in Great Britain, where
they lived. The couple decided to be multilingual (i.e. they named their FLP), despite
not being familiar with the scientific works. Until kindergarten, Maja was able to
communicate in the native languages of both parents, even though her father spent
very little time with her. Then the girl went to kindergarten, where people spoke
English, so she began to communicate with it fluently. Parents say that despite
attempts, Maja does not want to speak their languages and speaks English more often,
but on a daily basis parents always communicate with each other in English, what's
more, when they talk in three people, they all use English so that no one is excluded
from the conversation. Besides, the father admitted that her lack of desire may be
caused by his laziness and that he uses the Polish "if he do not forget". The mother
perceives her daughter as Japanese, even though Maja does not feel like her, and thus
undermines the child's feelings. Moreover, he reacts to her feelings in a very
emotional way.
In conclusion, it is worth studying research before deciding whether your child is
multilingual, as it is a complex issue. Important are, among others, consistency of
parents and expectations towards the child, which when not met, manifest themselves
in negative emotions on the part of the parents, thus increasing the opposition to the
use of a given language by the child.

Source: neofilolog, CZASOPISMO POLSKIEGO TOWARZYSTWA

NEOFILOLOGICZNEGO NR 47/2, A. Jaroszewska, J. Sujecka-Zając, Poznań-
Warszawa 2016