What’s in the family app?
Making sense of digitally mediated communication within multilingual families
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jmtp.15363Keywords:
Digitally mediated communication, family multilingualism, WhatsAppAbstract
Communication within contemporary families is increasingly and to a significant
extent mediated through technological devices and digital applications.
Although the everyday reality of many multilingual families is permeated by technology, research on their digital and language practices has been scant. This article argues for the need for eclectic approaches that draw upon theories, practices, and findings from research on transnational families and migration, digitally mediated family communication, parental mediation, multilingualism online, and family multilingualism and language transmission. Two empirical case studies are presented on multilingual family constellations in Finland in which the instant messaging application WhatsApp was used to create space to sustain transnational family relationships, to negotiate about agency, to create cultural identity and group membership, as well as to practise and develop literacy. Whereas previous research has focused on digital practices in families, on multilingual practices on internet platforms, or on language transmission processes in families, we argue that future research should focus more on the digital multilingual family and explore the role of languages as embedded in digital media activities and interwoven in everyday family life.
References
Ames, M., Go, J., Kaye, J., and Spasojevic, M. (2010) Making love in the network closet. Proceedings of the 2010 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW 2010, Savannah, Georgia, USA, 6–10 February 2010. https://doi:10.1145/1718918.1718946
Androutsopoulos, J. (2008) Potentials and limitations of discourse-centred online ethnography. Language@Internet 5.8: 1–20.
Audience Project (2019) Insights 2019. App and Social Media Usage. US, UK, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland. Available at: https://www.audienceproject.com/wp-content/uploads/audienceproject_study_apps_social_media.pdf
Bakardijeva, M. (2016) Computer-mediated communication. In K. B. Jensen, R. T. Craig, J. D. Pooley, and E. W. Rothenbuhler (eds) The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy 1–20. London: Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118766804.wbiect124
Baldassar, L. (2016) De?demonizing distance in mobile family lives: Co?presence, care circulation and polymedia as vibrant matter. Global Networks 16.2: 145–63. https://doi:10.1111/glob.12109
Baldassar, L., Baldock, C. V., and Wilding, R. (2007) Families Caring Across Borders. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Benítez, J. L. (2012) Salvadoran Transnational families: ICT and communication practices in the network society. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 38.9: 1439–49. https://doi:10.1080/1369183X.2012.698214
Bruess, C. J. (2015) Family Communication in the Age of Digital and Social Media. New York: Peter Lang.
Christensen, T. H. (2009) ‘Connected presence’ in distributed family life. New Media & Society 11.3: 433–51. https://doi:10.1177/1461444808101620
Clark, L. S. (2011) Parental mediation theory for the digital age. Communication Theory 21.4: 323–43. https://doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2011.01391.x
Clayton, W., Jain, J., Ladkin, A., and Marouda, M. (2018) The ‘digital glimpse’ as imagining home. Mobilities 13.3: 382–96. https://doi:10.1080/17450101.2017.1365473
Couldry, N. and Hepp, A. (2017) The Mediated Construction of Reality. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2009) Invisible and visible language planning: Ideological factors in the family language policy of Chinese immigrant families in Quebec. Language Policy 8.4: 351–75. https://doi:10.1007/s10993-009-9146-7
Danet, B. and Herring, S. C. (2007) The Multilingual Internet. New York: Oxford University Press.
De Houwer, A. (1990) The Acquisition of Two Languages: A Case Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
De Houwer, A. (2007) Parental language input patterns and children’s bilingual use. Applied Psycholinguistics 28.3: 411–24. https://doi:10.1017/S0142716407070221
De Houwer, A. (2009) Bilingual First Language Acquisition. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Döpke, S. (1992) One Parent–One Language: An Interactional Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Farshbaf Shaker, S. (2018) A study of transnational communication among Iranian migrant women in Australia. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 16.3: 293–312. https://doi:10.1080/15562948.2017.1283078
Fishman, J. A. (1991) Reversing Language Shift. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Francisco, V. (2015) ‘The internet is magic’: Technology, intimacy and transnational families. Critical Sociology 41.1: 173–90. https://doi:10.1177/0896920513484602
Greenberg, S. and Neustaedter, C. (2013) Shared living, experiences, and intimacy over video chat in long distance relationships. In C. Neustaedter, S. Harrison, and A. J. Sellen (eds) Connecting Families: The Impact of New Communication Technologies on Domestic Life 37–53. London: Springer.
Hänninen, R., Taipale, S., and Korhonen, A. (2018) Refamilisation in the broadband society – The effects of ICTs on family solidarity in Finland. Journal of Family Studies. https://doi:10.1080/13229400.2018.1515101
Hirsch, T. (2018) An ethnographic study of transnational family language policy in Facebook communities across time. Doctoral dissertation. University of California, Santa Barbara. Available at: https://core.ac.uk/reader/224406750.
Hirsch, T. and Lee, J. S. (2018) Understanding the complexities of transnational family language policy. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 39.10: 882–94. https://doi:10.1080/01434632.2018.1454454
Jeong, Y., You, H., and Kwon, Y. I. (2014) One family in two countries: Mothers in Korean transnational families. Ethnic and Racial Studies 37.9: 1546–64. https://doi:10.1080/01419870.2012.758861
Kang, T. (2012) Gendered media, changing intimacy: Internet-mediated transnational communication in the family sphere. Media, Culture & Society 34.2: 146–61. https://doi:10.1177/0163443711430755
Kaufmann, K. and Peil, C. (2020) The mobile instant messaging interview (MIMI): Using WhatsApp to enhance self-reporting and explore media usage in situ. Mobile Media & Communication 8.2: 229–46. https://doi:10.1177/2050157919852392
King, K. A. and Fogle, L. W. (2017) Family language policy. In T. McCarty and S. May (eds) Language Policy and Political Issues in Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education 315–26. Cham: Springer.
King, K. A., Fogle, L., and Logan-Terry, A. (2008) Family language policy. Language and Linguistics Compass 2.5: 907–22. https://doi:10.1111/j.1749-818X.2008.00076.x
King, K. and Lanza, E. (2019) Ideology, agency, and imagination in multilingual families: An introduction. International Journal of Bilingualism 23.3: 717–23. https://doi:10.1177/1367006916684907
King-O’Riain, R. C. (2014) Transconnective space, emotions and skype: The transnational emotional practices of mixed international couples in the Republic of Ireland. In E. Fisher and T. Benski (eds) Internet and Emotions 131–43. New York: Routledge.
King-O’Riain, R. C. (2015) Emotional streaming and transconnectivity: Skype and emotion practices in transnational families in Ireland. Global Networks 15.2: 256–73. https://doi:10.1111/glob.12072
Lanigan, J. D. (2009) A sociotechnological model for family research and intervention: How information and communication technologies affect family life. Marriage & Family Review 45.6–8: 587–609. https://doi:10.1080/01494920903224194
Lanza, E. (1997) Language Mixing in Infant Bilingualism: A Sociolinguistic Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lanza, E. (2019) Multilingual parenting: Family language policies in online blogging and vlogging. Paper presented at the Approaches to Migration, Language, and Identity: Practices, Ideologies Now and then. 19–21 September 2019, University of Duisburg-Essen.
Lanza, E. and Lexander, K. V. (2019) Family language practices in multilingual transcultural families. In S. Montanari and S. Quay (eds) Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Multilingualism 229–52. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.
Lee, C. (2017) Multilingualism Online. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Leppänen, S., Kytölä, S., and Westinen, E. (2017) Multilingualism and multimodality in language use and literacies in digital environments. In S. Thorn and S. May (eds) Language, Education and Technology. Encyclopedia of Language and Education 119–30. Cham: Springer.
Leurs, K. and Smets, K. (2018) Five questions for digital migration studies: Learning from digital connectivity and forced migration in(to) Europe. Social Media + Society 4.1. https://doi:10.1177/2056305118764425
Lexander, K. V. and Androutsopoulos, J. (2019) Working with mediagrams: A methodology for collaborative research on mediational repertoires in multilingual families. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.10.1080/01434632.2019.1667363
Lim, S. S. (2016a) Mobile Communication and the Family. First Comprehensive Collection of Technology Domestication Research from Across Asia. Dordrecht: Springer.
Lim, S. S. (2016b) Through the tablet glass: Transcendent parenting in an era of mobile media and cloud computing. Journal of Children and Media 10.1: 21–29. https://doi:10.1080/17482798.2015.1121896
Little, S. (2019) ‘Is there an app for that?’ Exploring games and apps among heritage language families. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 40.3: 218–29. https://doi:10.1080/01434632.2018.1502776
Livingstone, S. and Helsper, E. J. (2008) Parental mediation of children’s internet use. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 52.4: 581–99. https://doi:10.1080/08838150802437396
Madianou, M. and Miller, D. (2012) Migration and New Media: Transnational Families and Polymedia. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Mascheroni, G., Ponte, C., and Jorge, A. (eds) (2018) Digital Parenting. Göteborg: The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media at Bordicom, University of Gothenburg.
Miller, J. (2014) The fourth screen: Mediatization and the smartphone. Mobile Media & Communication 2.2: 209–26. https://doi:10.1177/2050157914521412
Nedelcu, M. and Wyss, M. (2016) ‘Doing family’ through ICT?mediated ordinary co?presence: Transnational communication practices of Romanian migrants in Switzerland. Global Networks 16.2: 202–18. https://doi:10.1111/glob.12110
Neustaedter, C., Harrison, S., and Sellen, A. J. (eds) (2013) Connecting Families. London: Springer.
Olwig, K. F. (1999) Narratives of the children left behind: Home and identity in globalised Caribbean families. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 25.2: 267–84. https://doi:10.1080/1369183X.1999.9976685
Palviainen, Å. (2020a) Future prospects and visions for family language policy research. In A. C. Schalley and S. A. Eisenchlas (eds) Handbook of Social and Affective Factors in Home Language Maintenance and Development 236–53. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.
Palviainen, Å. (2020b) Video calls as a nexus of practice in multilingual translocal families. Zeitschrift Für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht 25.1: 85–108.
Parreñas, R. S. (2001) Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
Pettegrew, L. S. and Day, C. (2015) Smart phones and mediated relationships: The changing face of relational communication. Review of Communication 15.2: 122–39. https://doi:10.1080/15358593.2015.1044018
Pettigrew, J. (2009) Text messaging and connectedness within close interpersonal relationships. Marriage & Family Review 45.6–8: 697–716. https://doi:10.1080/01494920903224269
Piller, I. (2001) Private language planning: The best of both worlds? Estudios De Sociolingüística 2.1: 61–80.
Prieto-Blanco, P. (2016) (Digital) photography, experience and space in transnational families. A case study of Spanish-Irish families living in Ireland. In E. Gómez Cruz and A. Lehmuskallio (eds) Digital Photography and Everyday Life. Empirical Studies on Material Visual Practices 122–40. New York, NY: Routledge.
Ronjat, J. (1913) Le Developpement du Langage Observé chez un Enfant Bilingüe. [Language Development Observed in a Bilingual Child]. Paris: Champion.
Rudi, J., Dworkin, J., Walker, S., and Doty, J. (2015) Parents’ use of information and communications technologies for family communication: Differences by age of children. Information, Communication & Society 18.1: 78–93. https://doi:10.1080/1369118X.2014.934390
Schalley, A. C. and Eisenchlas, S. A. (eds) (2020) Handbook of Social and Affective Factors in Home Language Maintenance and Development. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.
Share, M., Williams, C., and Kerrins, L. (2018) Displaying and performing: Polish transnational families in Ireland skyping grandparents in Poland. New Media & Society 20.8: 3011–28. https://doi:10.1177/1461444817739272
Smith-Christmas, C. (2017) Family Language Policy: New Directions. London: Routledge.
Spolsky, B. (2012) Family language policy — The critical domain. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 33.1: 3–11. https://doi:10.1080/01434632.2011.638072
Stern, M. J. and Messer, C. (2009) How family members stay in touch: A quantitative investigation of core family networks. Marriage & Family Review 45.6–8: 654–76. https://doi:10.1080/01494920903224236
Sundqvist, P. and Wikström, P. (2015) Out-of-school digital gameplay and in-school L2 English vocabulary outcomes. System 51: 65–76. https://doi:10.1016/j.system.2015.04.001
Szecsi, T. and Szilagyi, J. (2012) Immigrant Hungarian families’ perceptions of new media technologies in the transmission of heritage language and culture. Language, Culture and Curriculum 25.3: 265–81. https://doi:10.1080/07908318.2012.722105
Taipale, S. (2019) Intergenerational Connections in Digital Families. Cham: Springer.
Van den Bulck, J., Custers, K., and Nelissen, S. (2016) The child-effect in the new media environment: Challenges and opportunities for communication research. Journal of Children and Media 10.1: 30–38. https://doi:10.1080/17482798.2015.1121897
