Resumen de Language use in interlingual families: Do different languages make a difference?

Masayo Yamamoto

• The present study investigates how languages are used in interlingual families, where two or more languages are involved. In analyzing data collected from two different groups of interlingual families, Japanese-Filipino (J-Fi) and Japanese-English (J-E) families, some intriguing group differences are found: the J-Fi families use the societal language much more than the J-E families do; and the J-Fi families employ, either exclusively or complementarily, one or more languages not native to either of the parents (Lα), while none of the J-E families do. The analysis also found a significant group difference in assessing the general Japanese perception of bilingualism in their own native languages and in their bilingual child rearing. In line with the author's previous findings, the present findings suggest that how languages are used in interlingual families could be language sensitive, interrelating with the perceived prestige and possible merits of proficiency in a given language.