Papers by Niamh Carolin Doyle
Language Policy Beyond the State, 2017
The present paper reports the findings of a study into the recollections by four Swedish-Estonian... more The present paper reports the findings of a study into the recollections by four Swedish-Estonian young adult informants of their multilingual upbringing and their parents’ family language policy (FLP). With the narratives of the young adult children and their experiences growing up the focus, the paper investigates the outcomes of the respective FLPs and concerns itself with a form of ‘unofficial’ language policy that operates at a level far below that of the state.
Born in Sweden, the informants all now live in Estonia. The sociolinguistic context of the small nation of Estonia, a post-Soviet situation, provides some insights for a discussion of FLP; namely, the notions of ‘minority’ and ‘majority’, and how the manner in which Estonian-speakers perceive their ‘smaller’ country and language affects their FLPs.
Two semi-structured interviews (one in Estonian and one in English) were conducted separately with each of the informants (eight interviews in total). Alongside matters to do directly with the FLPs and upbringing, the issues of Estonian as a ‘smaller’ language and Estonia as a multilingual place were investigated from the perspective of the informants. This study contributes to the as yet small body of literature on children’s perspectives of FLP.
Philologia Estonica Tallinnensis, 2018
This paper presents the family language policies of four Estonian- non-Estonian bilingual, transn... more This paper presents the family language policies of four Estonian- non-Estonian bilingual, transnational families, with focus paid to the language management efforts of the fathers and the challenges they faced, including child agency and imbalances of power. The findings indicate that minority-language fathers also engage in ‘language work’ (Okita 2002), and demonstrated that the fathers’ language management efforts were constrained and determined by factors such as the level of competence the men’s spouse has in his L1, child agency, and access to a same languageculture community as a supportive resource.
Successful family language policy: parents, children and educators in interaction, eds. Mila Schwartz & Anna Verschik. Series Multilingual Education., 2013
Thesis Chapters by Niamh Carolin Doyle
The aim of this dissertation, which comprises my three publications and an analytical overview, i... more The aim of this dissertation, which comprises my three publications and an analytical overview, is to understand, with respect to the 19 families in question, how the family’s language policy was implemented and negotiated by family members within the multilingual sociolinguistic context of Tallinn, and the role this context played in shaping the language policy and its outcomes. The research on which this dissertation’s three associated publications are based employed a micro-sociolinguistic, qualitative approach with the semi-structured interview as its data-gathering tool. The research found the family language(s) and bilingualism more generally to be valorised in the families, and the FLP to be co-constructed by all family members. Challenges experienced by the non-societal language parents in implementing the FLP were found to include resistance on the part of young children to communicate in the non-societal language, in cases the spouse not understanding the non-societal language, and the lack of a supportive same language and culture community in the surrounding society. The research suggests that transmission and maintenance of the non-societal language were facilitated by the combination of, on the one hand, an FLP that valorised the non-societal language and ensured consistent input in the non-societal language and, on the other hand, a surrounding sociolinguistic environment that supported the non-societal language. The results of this dissertation suggest that Estonia – given its multilingual population and the country’s openness to multilingualism, and the titular language being a ‘smaller’ language in global terms – is fertile ground for the transmission of ‘larger’ languages that command prestige within Estonia and/or globally (e.g. English, Spanish, German, Russian, and Swedish). It can be suggested that it was this marriage of (family language) policy and (sociolinguistic) place that proved critical to the transmission and maintenance of the non-societal languages. Full text of thesis: https://www.etera.ee/zoom/80109/view?page=1&p=separate&tool=info
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Papers by Niamh Carolin Doyle
Born in Sweden, the informants all now live in Estonia. The sociolinguistic context of the small nation of Estonia, a post-Soviet situation, provides some insights for a discussion of FLP; namely, the notions of ‘minority’ and ‘majority’, and how the manner in which Estonian-speakers perceive their ‘smaller’ country and language affects their FLPs.
Two semi-structured interviews (one in Estonian and one in English) were conducted separately with each of the informants (eight interviews in total). Alongside matters to do directly with the FLPs and upbringing, the issues of Estonian as a ‘smaller’ language and Estonia as a multilingual place were investigated from the perspective of the informants. This study contributes to the as yet small body of literature on children’s perspectives of FLP.
Thesis Chapters by Niamh Carolin Doyle
Born in Sweden, the informants all now live in Estonia. The sociolinguistic context of the small nation of Estonia, a post-Soviet situation, provides some insights for a discussion of FLP; namely, the notions of ‘minority’ and ‘majority’, and how the manner in which Estonian-speakers perceive their ‘smaller’ country and language affects their FLPs.
Two semi-structured interviews (one in Estonian and one in English) were conducted separately with each of the informants (eight interviews in total). Alongside matters to do directly with the FLPs and upbringing, the issues of Estonian as a ‘smaller’ language and Estonia as a multilingual place were investigated from the perspective of the informants. This study contributes to the as yet small body of literature on children’s perspectives of FLP.