Language brokering as a site of language learning: linguistic practices amongst Turkish migrant adolescents in London

Despite increasing scholarly interest, child language brokering, whereby children and adolescents from migrant families translate for their parents, often remains an invisible practice. Studies have investigated the effect of brokering, exploring how young brokers may be repositioned within the family; elsewhere, the practice has been conceptualised as a care-based role. However, the link between language brokering and bilingual development has been less explored. This paper discusses the findings of a project investigating Turkish families in London, who have migrated as part of the middle-class migration from Turkey to the UK, and focuses on the brokering practices of their adolescent children. The study took a narrative approach to explore the adolescents’ experiences, their Turkish language maintenance, and the impact of brokering on their English language development. Drawing on Dörnyei’s theories of motivation, specifically L2MSS, and Norton and Darvin’s theory of investment, we show how this framework illuminates how adolescents become agentive within their brokering experiences, and use them to enhance their language learning, even as this agency is challenged by adult gatekeepers. The paper thereby makes a significant contribution to the scholarship by adding to calls for greater acknowledgment of the practice of brokering and its implications for language development.