Grandparents’ influence on children’s language development in multilingual families: A capital theory perspective

School of Literature, Zhuhai College of Science and Technology, Zhuhai, 519040, China

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Abstract

With the increasing prevalence of dual-career families and transnational marriages, most children live in two and more language environments. The theme of this paper is the influence of grandparents on children’s language development in multilingual environments, filling the gap of traditional research that focuses on the role of parents and ignores the role of grandparents. Based on Bourdieu’s capital theory, this study reveals the intertransformational relationship between family social capital (SC) and children’s language competence (LC). The study conclude that rich family SC can be converted into good LC, while limited family SC can only be converted into limited LC. Conversely, LC can also reflect a certain degree of family intimacy. In addition, the paper explores the two-way influence mechanisms of intergenerational language transfer: focusing on the key role of grandparents in Family Language Policy (FLP), the power dynamics between parents and grandparents regarding language choice, and the active shaping of language development by children as autonomous language practitioners (rather than passive recipients).