ABSTRACT

This paper explores the language planning strategies employed by Australian transnational families of Arabic-speaking backgrounds to develop their children’s bilingualism in English and Arabic. The paper concludes that the families’ transnationalism and strong links with their countries of origin played a significant role in their language planning decisions. The study revealed that the mothers consciously developed their children’s bilingualism by means of both planned and spontaneous language management strategies. Semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion revealed that the mothers used five main strategies, which comprised using the minority language at home, language mixing, reading stories, taking advantage of television shows and travelling to their hometowns. This paper discusses the validity and success of each strategy by comparing them with research findings on other transnational and migrant families around the world.

摘要

本文探讨了具有阿拉伯语背景的澳大利亚跨国家庭为培养孩子的英语和阿拉伯语双语能力而采用的语言规划策略。该论文的结论是，这些家庭的跨国主义和与原籍国的密切联系在他们的语言规划决策中发挥了重要作用。研究表明，母亲通过有计划和自发的语言管理策略有意识地培养孩子的双语能力。半结构化访谈和焦点小组讨论显示，母亲们使用了五种主要策略，包括在家使用少数民族语言、语言混合、阅读故事、利用电视节目和回家乡旅行。