Acceso usuarios
Nanfei Wang
, Yongyan Zheng
This study examines family language policy concerning the transmission of Chinese dialects within four Franco-Chinese families living in France. Through an ethnographic design, data were collected through participant observations, recorded family conversations, and interviews with the family members. By exploring parents' social representations of dialect transmission, occasionally situated in the ‘silent zone', this study illustrates that both Chinese mothers and French fathers perceive the transmission of Chinese dialects as a negligible concern when juxtaposed with the challenge of raising bilingual Franco-Putonghua children. Their language practices and management regarding Chinese dialect transmission are shaped by negative social representations, stemming from various factors, including Chinese and French national language policies, parents' educational and mobility experiences, and negative representations of dialects and dialect speakers. The social representations of dialect upheld by Chinese mothers are explicit, while those upheld by French fathers are often implicit, and situated in the ‘silent zone'. By examining parents' explicit and ‘silent zone’ social representations of dialects in these families, this study underscores the broader influence exerted by national language policy in home countries on family language policy in diasporic settings and the travelling of linguistic social representations across contexts.
