Language transmission opportunities created through video recording in the family: a microanalysis

ABSTRACT

The present study examines a family language transmission project in which a child, learning Polish in Australia, created video documentaries with her own voice annotations in Polish. The project generated numerous parent-child interactions at the time of videorecording, a focus of the present study. The data in the study were seven voice-annotated video documentaries made by the focal child. The qualitative microanalysis of the data consisted of repeated viewings of the data in order to identify any patterns in the parent-child interactions, gather evidence of language learning by the child and describe the role of the camera as a mediating tool. A sociocultural theory-based set of concepts was adopted to guide the analysis, which revealed several themes in the data. Firstly, to bid for help from her parents, the child used a range of interactional strategies to which the parents responded using confirmations, prompts or providing language units. Secondly, the family project created an environment conducive to language learning by supporting the child’s agency and helping her perform above her current language proficiency level. Finally, the video camera played a crucial role as a tool enabling the child’s agency and creating opportunities for indicational language learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual children
• language transmission Polish community
• parent-child collaborative interactions
• agency
• technological mediation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Clyne (1991, 3) defines community languages as ‘languages other than English and Aboriginal languages employed within the Australian community’. In his opinion, this term replaces the use of such terms as ‘foreign languages’, ‘migrant languages’ or ‘ethnic languages’, which are discriminatory or unsuitable in the Australian situation.

2 The seminars were supported financially by the Polish Consulate General in Sydney.

3 The use of diminutive forms of nouns is pervasive in the Polish language, particularly when adults interact with toddlers and preschool children. While older children who live in Poland get enough exposure to adult language to learn it, Polish-background children born and raised overseas get much less Polish language input and they tend to continue using stylistically incorrect diminutive forms when they are older. This phenomenon can be seen a factor negatively affecting Polish language maintenance in the second generation. It is therefore recommended that Polish families living overseas limit their use of diminutives, so that children do not have to re-learn a large part of their Polish lexicon when they are older.