Why do Russian-speaking families in Latvia choose Latvian-medium education? Three narratives about critical events
- Our paper discusses family language policies among multilingual families in Latvia with Russian as home language. The presentation is based on three case studies, i.e. interviews conducted with Russophones who have chosen to send their children to Latvian-medium pre-schools and schools. The main aim is to understand practices and regards among such families “from below,” i.e. which family-internal and family-external factors influenced the choice of Latvian-medium education and what impact this choice has on linguistic practices. The paper shows that there have been critical events which both encouraged and discouraged the choice of Latvian-medium education. The wish to integrate into mainstream society has been met by obstacles both from ethnic Russians and Latvians. Yet, the three families consider their choices to be the right ones for the future development of their children in a multiethnic Latvia in which Latvian serves as the unifying language of society.
Author: | Sanita LazdiņaORCiDGND, Heiko F. MartenORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-123820 |
ISBN: | 978-9985-58-898-7 |
Parent Title (English): | Multilingual practices in the Baltic countries |
Series (Serial Number): | Acta Universitatis Tallinnensis. Humaniora (-) |
Publisher: | Tallinn University Press |
Place of publication: | Tallinn |
Editor: | Anna Verschik |
Document Type: | Part of a Book |
Language: | English |
Year of first Publication: | 2021 |
Date of Publication (online): | 2023/12/06 |
Publishing Institution: | Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS) [Zweitveröffentlichung] |
Publicationstate: | Zweitveröffentlichung |
Publicationstate: | Postprint |
Reviewstate: | Peer-Review |
Tag: | Latvia; Latvian as a medium of instruction; Latvian as second language; Russophones; critical events; family language policy; language narratives; societal inclusion |
GND Keyword: | Bildung; Lettisch; Lettland; Mehrsprachigkeit; Russisch; Zweitsprache |
First Page: | 240 |
Last Page: | 282 |
DDC classes: | 400 Sprache / 400 Sprache, Linguistik |
Open Access?: | ja |
Linguistics-Classification: | Bilingualismus / Mehrsprachigkeit |
Linguistics-Classification: | Soziolinguistik |
Licence (German): | Urheberrechtlich geschützt |