Language portraits in describing family language policy: How the activity setting shapes power dynamics

IF 1.4 2区文学 Q2 COMMUNICATION

Language & Communication Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-22 DOI:10.1016/j.langcom.2026.01.001

Nanfei Wang , Santiago Sanchez Moreano

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This paper investigates language portraits (LPs) as a methodological tool for studying family language policy across contrasting settings: an indigenous multilingual school (Colombian Amazonia) and a Franco-Chinese transnational household (France). Analysing ethnolinguistic cornering and child agency, we examine how formal/informal contexts in our study shape researcher-child power dynamics. Data include child-created LPs and interviews. Findings reveal how different settings of LPs mediate researcher-participant power relations: In educational settings from our data, researcher framing legitimizes ethnolinguistic cornering, positioning children as subjects of analysis. In home contexts in this study, LPs transfer authority to children, amplifying children's agentive role. This study underscores the need for a nuanced understanding of the power relations between actors during the activity and the impact of the context to the activity. It provides unique insights into how these elements affect the methodological effectiveness of language portraits.

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描述家庭语言政策的语言画像：活动背景如何塑造权力动态

本文将语言画像（lp）作为研究不同背景下家庭语言政策的方法论工具：一个土著多语言学校（哥伦比亚亚马逊地区）和一个法中跨国家庭（法国）。通过分析民族语言拐弯和儿童代理，我们研究了研究中的正式/非正式背景如何塑造研究者-儿童权力动态。数据包括儿童创建的有限合伙人和访谈。研究结果揭示了lp的不同设置如何调解研究人员-参与者的权力关系：从我们的数据来看，在教育设置中，研究人员的框架使民族语言的拐角合法化，将儿童定位为分析的对象。在本研究的家庭情境中，lp将权力转移给儿童，放大了儿童的代理角色。这项研究强调需要细致入微地理解活动中行为者之间的权力关系以及情境对活动的影响。它为这些因素如何影响语言画像的方法论有效性提供了独特的见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Language & Communication Multiple-

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

6.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： This journal is unique in that it provides a forum devoted to the interdisciplinary study of language and communication. The investigation of language and its communicational functions is treated as a concern shared in common by those working in applied linguistics, child development, cultural studies, discourse analysis, intellectual history, legal studies, language evolution, linguistic anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, the politics of language, pragmatics, psychology, rhetoric, semiotics, and sociolinguistics. The journal invites contributions which explore the implications of current research for establishing common theoretical frameworks within which findings from different areas of study may be accommodated and interrelated. By focusing attention on the many ways in which language is integrated with other forms of communicational activity and interactional behaviour, it is intended to encourage approaches to the study of language and communication which are not restricted by existing disciplinary boundaries.