Abstract This study examines how the transnational lives of two Sinhalese-speaking Sri Lankan families in the rural U.S. influenced family language policy (FLP) and how they (re)positioned themselves in response to their transnational lives. Employing an ethnographic design, including interviews and observations, this study explores the families’ language ideologies and management strategies and the factors that shaped their policies. Both families held similar language ideologies but contrasting management strategies that were informed by a differing socioeconomic status and eventual home country return, and which in turn led to different ways of FLP formation and implementation. FLPs were aimed at accruing capital and social prestige to facilitate the navigation of spaces in family members’ present and (imagined) future lives in Sri Lanka and the U.S., and possibly beyond; yet, these same policies created a sense of ambivalence in regards to transnationals’ cultural and linguistic identities and attachments. The findings show the competing and contradictory forces at play in transnational bilingual children’s heritage language development. This study draws attention to how transnationals navigate global citizenry and how they make decisions about language as they reimagine and refashion their membership into multiple communities in an interconnected world.

中文翻译：

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跨国斯里兰卡僧伽罗族家庭语言政策：美国两个家庭的挑战与矛盾

摘要本研究探讨了两个说英语的僧伽罗语家庭在美国农村的跨国生活如何影响家庭语言政策（FLP），以及他们如何（重新）定位自己以应对他们的跨国生活。本研究采用人种学设计，包括访谈和观察，探讨了家庭的语言意识形态和管理策略以及影响其政策的因素。两个家庭的语言意识形态相似，但管理策略却因社会经济地位不同以及最终归还母国而有所不同，从而导致FLP形成和实施的方式不同。FLP旨在积累资本和社会声望，以促进家庭成员在斯里兰卡和美国乃至其他地区目前和（想象的）未来生活中的空间流动；然而，这些相同的政策在跨国公司的文化和语言特性和依恋方面产生了矛盾感。研究结果表明，在跨国双语儿童的传统语言发展中，竞争和矛盾的力量正在发挥作用。这项研究提请人们注意跨国公司如何驾驭全球公民，以及他们如何在相互联系的世界中重新构想并重新成为多个社区的成员时如何做出语言决策。研究结果表明，在跨国双语儿童的传统语言发展中，竞争和矛盾的力量正在发挥作用。这项研究提请人们注意跨国公司如何驾驭全球公民，以及他们如何在相互联系的世界中重新构想并重新成为多个社区的成员时如何做出语言决策。研究结果表明，在跨国双语儿童的传统语言发展中，竞争和矛盾的力量正在发挥作用。这项研究提请人们注意跨国公司如何驾驭全球公民，以及他们如何在相互联系的世界中重新构想并重新成为多个社区的成员时如何做出语言决策。