Paternidad intensiva y bilingüismo electivo inglés/ español en familias monolingües españolas: De las ideologías lingüísticas a la práctica

In our globalised economy, English proficiency is currently a priority for Spanish families, as it is fundamental for ensuring their children’s future economic and personal welfare. As a sign of good parenting, families are increasingly acting as linguistic entrepreneurs and adopting family language policies oriented to provide their children with the best methodologies to enhance English learning, thereby investing their personal and financial capital in extracurricular classes, local English camps, and stays abroad. In searching for more natural learning environments, those parents with knowledge of English emulate native bi/multilingual families and raise their children in English and Spanish. This type of non-native elective bilingualism upbringing is gaining momentum in Spain and deserves further scrutiny. Therefore, this paper is devoted to better understand this phenomenon by means of the study of 16 Spanish families who are raising their children in English and Spanish. Their family language policy (FLP) will be analysed in terms of language beliefs, language management and language practices. Results reflect parents’ desires and imagined identities with English as a metaphor of accomplishment, as well as their emotional implications, disruptions and negotiations to bring to fruition this complex socialization practice.En nuestra economía globalizada, el dominio del inglés es prioritario para las familias españolas, al ser considerado fundamental para el futuro bienestar económico y personal de sus hijos. Como muestra de buena crianza, las familias actúan como emprendedores lingüísticos y adoptan políticas lingüísticas familiares orientadas a proporcionar a sus hijos las mejores metodologías para potenciar el aprendizaje del inglés, invirtiendo su capital personal y económico en clases extraescolares, campamentos de inglés y estancias en el extranjero. En busca de entornos de aprendizaje más naturales, aquellos padres con conocimientos de inglés emulan a las familias nativas bilingües o multilingües y crían a sus hijos en inglés y español. Este tipo de bilingüismo electivo no nativo está cobrando fuerza en España y merece mayor análisis. Por ello, este trabajo pretende comprender mejor este fenómeno mediante el estudio de 16 familias españolas que educan a sus hijos en inglés y en español. Se analizará su política lingüística familiar (PLF) en lo que respecta a creencias, gestión y prácticas lingüísticas. Los resultados reflejan los deseos y las identidades imaginadas de los padres con el inglés como metáfora de realización, así como sus implicaciones emocionales, disrupciones y negociaciones para implementar esta compleja práctica de socialización

Speaking in nobody's mother tongue: English immersion at home as a family language policy

In a globalized society, where neoliberalism imposes its logic at all levels, languages (and particularly, English) are seen as profitable commodities to thrive in the market society. In Spain, a growing number of families, aware of the value ascribed to English as an international lingua franca (ELF), intensively support their children to achieve a high command in this language, by means of the implementation of strategies such as the creation of English immersion scenarios at home. The participants in this study were 17 families, with parents whose mother tongue was not English, but who used English at home in the interactions with their children. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews and was analysed against the frameworks of neoliberal approaches to language learning, family language policy, non-native bilingualism, good parenting, and linguistic family agency and entrepreneurship. Results shed light into language beliefs and conceptions, and language planning and management that underpin this atypical sociolinguistic practice, as well as the dilemmas and disruptions families deal with to successfully implement immersion environments in a language that is nobody's mother tongue