Volume: 28  Number: 6  Page: 484–501  doi:10.2167/jmmd542.0

Minority Language Socialisation within the Family: Investigating the Early Welsh Language Socialisation of Babies and Young Children in Mixed Language Families in Wales

Delyth Morris1 and Kathryn Jones2 1School of Social Sciences, University of Wales Bangor, Gwynedd, UK and 2Cwmni Iaith, Parc Busnes Llanelwy, UK

The role of the home and family/caregivers is commonly acknowledged as being central to securing the intergenerational socialisation of minority languages. Research evidence demonstrates that the survival or demise of minority languages crucially depends upon the extent to which the language is passed on from one generation to the next within the household context. In Wales, there is a marked lack of parental success in ensuring children's acquisition and use of Welsh, particularly in cases when one parent speaks Welsh and the other not. Such a trend, should it continue, seriously threatens the future of the Welsh language. In this paper, we discuss the results of a recent research project carried out with 12 families in Wales, where the factors that affect the language socialisation of babies and young children within mixed language households were studied in depth. This study represents the first stage of a longitudinal study of language socialisation of children within mixed language families in Wales.

Keywords: children, family, language, reproduction, socialisation, Welsh

© 2007 D. Morris & K. Jones

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