Bilingual development, translanguaging practices, and discursive co-construction of ethnic identity in Algerian Chaoui families

Aims and Objectives: This research sets out to explore the discourse strategies enacted by Algerian Chaoui parents to promote their children’s bilingual use in a context wherein Chaouia is underrepresented and socially stigmatized. In addition, it seeks to explore how participants draw on their bilingual repertoires to navigate their ethnic affiliations and negotiate code choices as they engage in day-to-day interactions. Design/Methodology: To address this issue, an ethnographic study was carried out on one One-Parent-One-Language (OPOL) Chaoui family that resides in Biskra city, Algeria. Data and Analysis: The fieldwork observations were combined with recordings and parental diaries to gather social and linguistic data about the family under investigation. Findings: The research findings demonstrated that both parents enact diverse language strategies that represent distinct, yet interrelated, dimensions of parental support. The family language management echoes parents’ orientation toward bilingual centered family language policy. The results also demonstrated the inextricable connection between the enactment of specific discourse strategies, promotion (or hindrance) of bilingual use, and ethnic identity construction. Drawing on various linguistic resources, parents create a creative home environment to encourage their child to freely practice his skills in Chaouia and colloquial Arabic in flexible ways. Originality: One of the chief areas in which this ethnographic research differs from other previous studies is its focus on the role of majority language-speaking parents in minority language use. Also, this study brings to light the role of hybrid language practices in bilingual use and ethnic identity (re)construction in an unexplored context which has been under-researched in family language policy (FLP) literature. Implications: The study suggests that OPOL families employ diverse language strategies for purely pragmatic considerations—that is, the need to maintain a full cross-generational transfer of the socially stigmatized and educationally unsupported heritage language, while concurrently supporting their children’s bilingual development.