Family language policy, school language practices and language socialisation among the Tonga

Abstract

This study investigates the interface between school language practices and children’s language socialisation among speakers of the Tonga language in Binga, Zimbabwe. It is couched in the view that extra-familial language practices and experiences have a bearing on language socialisation patterns on the home domain. The study, therefore, examines how language practices in the school are infused with language practices within the family milieu, and is informed by the twin concepts of family language policy and language socialisation. To understand the nature of the interaction, we elicited and analysed perspectives of selected first language (L1) Tonga parents and their school-going children on how they thought school language practices are related with language choices and language socialisation preferences within the family linguistic ecology. The major finding is that children’s school language experiences and practices permeate the home in various ways. Their importance in family language policies cast children as agents of their own language socialisation as opposed to being passive subjects of ‘expert’ parental language socialisation. The school is therefore an important language socialisation sphere which has a far-reaching influence on language use in the family. It should thus be considered as a domain relevant to the articulation of family language policies by speakers of minoritised languages.