| Under the increasingly fierce competition of study and profession,family education investment has become a social hot spot,among which English education investment is the leading one,showing a tendency of "younger age and higher investment".On the one hand,it affects the daily life of families,and on the other hand,it also reflects macroeconomic,cultural and social changes.It is of great significance to explore the management of family foreign language education,parents’ language beliefs and the ecological environment of family by considering the investment in family English education as an intervention means taken by parents to improve children’s English ability.Including the investment in family English education into the field of family language policy research,this study takes the urban middle-class families in Shaoxing as the research object to explore the investment in family English education,parents’language beliefs and the influencing factors of family foreign language education policy in a medium-sized city in China.From the perspective of ecology and combined with relevant theories of family language policy,this study adopts a mixed sequential research design to answer the following three research questions:（1）what is the current situation of family English education investment and parents’ language attitude?（2）What are the characteristics of family English education investment?What kind of language beliefs do parents have?（3）What factors influence the policy of family foreign language education?How is it affected by these factors?The researcher compiled a reliable questionnaire on Children’s English Education and conducted a survey among parents of students in 2 primary schools and 2 kindergartens in Shaoxing.The statistical results show that the parents have a positive attitude towards the value of English.The value of use and exchange is higher than the symbolic value,and the internal consistency of exchange value is the highest,especially the academic value of English.There are significant differences in attitudes towards the value of English usage among parents of different occupations and academic degrees.Family English education is characterized by rich material investment forms,high degree of non-intellectual participation and a certain degree of social interaction.parents’ occupation,educational background and annual income all have different degrees of influences on family English education investment,among which parents’educational background has the greatest influence.In order to deeply explore the characteristics of English education investment,parents’ language beliefs and the influencing factors of family foreign language education policy,this study adopts case study on the basis of questionnaire survey through qualitative research methods such as in-depth interviews,participatory observation,netnography and physical objects analysis.The findings show that the forms of family English education investment has the characteristics of the interactive relevance and stratification,presents the mode of intergenerational cooperation management and information management,and can be seen as a way of intensive parenting.The language beliefs of parents are mainly embodied in language instrumentalism and standard language ideology.The practical ability of English represented by standard and fluent oral English has the characteristics of symbolic capital and highlights the value of identity.In addition,the policy of family foreign language education is influenced by micro,meso and macro factors.These factors are interrelated,reflecting the complex and dynamic family ecological environment.The thesis also finds out three types of identity--family class identity,parental role identity and imagined identity,and three kinds of discourses flowing in the meso level,namely"parenting style" discourse,"competition" discourse,and "learn in advance"discourse,as well as the instrumental values and linguistic entrepreneurship behind these discourses.Parental identity and the flowing discourse in meso level connect the micro,meso and macro levels,contributing to the realization of family foreign language education policy. |
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