Lost in translation: parents as medium translators in intergenerational language transmission

ABSTRACT

This study reports on the role of parents in intergenerational language transmission in a Chinese city. Thirteen families’ everyday communication practices have been collected, including dinner table talks, homework tutoring, and children's playtime interactions. Through comparative conversation analysis, the study reveals a phenomenon of ‘medium translation,’ a de facto language practice ‘brokering’ the communication between grandparents and children in three-generation households who use Fangyans (also known as Chinese dialects) and Putonghua (literally translated ‘common speech for all Chinese people’) in their daily communication. The findings indicate that parents’ role as ‘medium translators’ in intergenerational transmission is one critical factor contributing to the loss of Fangyan when it is passed down from grandparents to children, despite the facts that grandparents play an important role in childrearing and children are exposed to Fangyan from birth. Language shift was, ‘translated into being’ as parents mediated children's language shift from Fangyan to Putonghua. The study has important implications for the maintenance of linguistic varieties such as Fangyan in China and other similar contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban families
• family language policy
• Fangyan transmission
• medium translator
• language brokering

Acknowledgments

Research for this study was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for Central China Universities, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan. We would like to thank the university for the sponsorship, and also the anonymous reviewers and editors for their valuable comments and suggestions in making the paper better. Any remaining errors are our own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Research for this study was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for Central China Universities, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan.

Notes on contributors

Weihong Wang

Weihong Wang is Associate Professor in Language and Education at the School of Foreign Language Studies, China University of Geosciences, China. She completed her PhD at The University of Hong Kong, on English Language Education. Her publications can be seen on International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Language, Culture and Curriculum, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, System, The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, etc.

Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen

Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen is Professor in Language and Education at the Department of Education, University of Bath, UK. She has published widely in the field of applied linguistics. Her recent books include: Learning Chinese in Diasporic Communities (by John Benjamins); and Language, Ideology and Education: The Politics of Textbooks in Language Education (by Routledge). Her other publications have appeared in Language Policy, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Language, Culture and Curriculum, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Language and Education, etc.