Language Planning In Vietnamese Chinese Families

With the increase in transnational marriage,immigration and other social mobility,family language has gradually become diverse,and language planning at the family level has gradually received attention.Domestic and abroad studies on family language planning have focused more on countries or regions with significant bilingual or multilingual characteristics,such as the United States,Canada,Singapore,and Malaysia.Vietnam,as a multi-ethnic country with significant multilingual character,has received little attention,and little studies on family language planning on Vietnamese Chinese have yet emerged.With shared mountains and rivers,Vietnam has geopolitical and political significance to China.With a considerable number of Chinese overseas in its territory,there is a strong call for studies on the Chinese language usage situation of Vietnamese Chinese families so as to enrich related research about Vietnamese Chinese families and provide implications for the spread of the Chinese language in Vietnam.Family language planning is a dynamic and constantly changing process with individual differences according to actual context.Given this,this thesis chose qualitative research method for data collection and analysis.Five bilingual or multilingual Vietnamese Chinese families encompassing the three typical structures of Vietnamese Chinese families were chosen as subjects for interview.The research questions were designed under Spolsky’s(2004)language planning theory from three aspects: language ideology,language management,and language practice:(1)Language ideology: How do the five Vietnamese Chinese families think about the Chinese language? What factors do parents consider in their children’s language learning and use choices?(2)Language management: Who can decide on language choice in the five Vietnamese Chinese families? What efforts and attempts have parents made to promote their children’s language development?(3)Language practice: What is the level of Chinese language use in the five Vietnamese Chinese families? What is the status of language use of family members inside and outside the family?The findings are as follows:(1)In terms of language ideology,although parents have a strong sense of identity with the Chinese language,the overall state of family language life pays more attention to Vietnamese and English,which is related to their belief that learning these two languages can make their children better develop in Vietnamese society.Families who choose to let their children learn the Chinese language are because they agree more with the capital value of the Chinese language.(2)In terms of language management,parents are usually the makers and executors of family language planning,but children,as nuclear family members,also have initiative.Children’s language behavior also affects parents’ ideas and strategies for family language education,thus participating in forming and implementing family language planning.When Vietnamese Chinese parents,as family language planners,rely on cram schools and other forms of extra-curricular counselling in language education,resulting in a heavy learning burden for their children,most children are unable to balance multi-language learning.(3)In terms of language practice,the language level and language use within Vietnamese Chinese families exists generation differences,manifested in the rising trend of Vietnamese and English with the intergeneration transmission,while the level of Mandarin and Chinese dialects is declining.Vietnamese Chinese have different language use tendencies on different occasions.In the Chinese community,they use Mandarin and Chinese dialects as the lingua franca;In the public domain,they use Vietnamese most frequently.Combining the research findings and the Vietnamese language and cultural context,this thesis holds that the study on family language planning of Vietnamese Chinese can provide the following three implications for the international spread of the Chinese language in Vietnam: First,pay attention to the role of the family in Chinese education,and focus on Chinese language inheritance.Second,create more opportunities for the Chinese overseas,and maximize the value of the Chinese language as a linguistic capital.Third,enhance the spread of Chinese culture so as to enhance the international language competitiveness of the Chinese language.