English Immersion as Family Language Policy: Affective Dimensions of Children's Language Investment in a Family-run Space

Attribution: © José Manuel Suárez

In the societal context of English fever partly fuelled by self-deprecation ideologies (Park, 2009), Catalan families are increasingly investing in non-academic and more attractive ways of learning English in leisure (Codó & Sunyol, forthcoming). This talk will give an overview of the «English immersion as family language policy» project and then focus on an etnography of a family-run English-language playgroup for primary school students. How does affect shape children’s investment in learning English beyond the school? In what ways do family histories of affect (re)produce certain dispositions and act as sources of family agency to find alternative strategies?

Referentin: Maria Rosa Garrido, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Codó, E. & Sunyol, A. (in press, 2024). “L’aprenentatge vital de l’anglès”: els discursos de famílies catalanes sobre la mobilitat educativa adolescent a l’estranger. Treballs de Sociolingüística Catalana, 34.

Park, J. S.-Y. (2009). The Local Construction of a Global Language: Ideologies of English in South Korea. De Gruyter.