Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Multilingual Families from a Sociolinguistic Perspective

Murrmann, Julia Magdalena

doi:https://doi.org/10.17651/SOCJOLING.35.6

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Title: Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Multilingual Families from a Sociolinguistic Perspective

Abstract:

The unprecedented situation caused by the sudden worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus, with the introduction of safety measures as a consequence, changed many aspects of life of families raising children multilingually. With empirical data from 157 international families interviewed via an online survey, in the present paper, we addressed the significant repercussions that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to their daily routines from a sociolinguistic perspective and investigated their use of languages during the lockdown(s). As for a preliminary evaluation of the impact of the safety measures on the linguistic situation at home, according to 68 families the COVID-19 pandemic had generally a positive influence on the knowledge and distribution of languages spoken by children, 49 observed an overall negative effect, 33 interviewed families said that there were no significant changes in their households due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 7 respondents admitted that it was still too early to assess the consequences of the global health emergency on their language situation at home. It should be highlighted that different families adopted different strategies to cope with the new circumstances caused by quarantining, lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, prolonged self isolation, social distancing, school closures, switching to remote learning, travel bans, and other restrictions. In many cases it was necessary for the parents to introduce a new family language policy, to implement new strategies, to use alternative and additional educational resources, to find solutions to new challenges, needs, tasks, and difficulties emerged under the new circumstances. Based on the research outcomes it was possible to gather advice, recommendations, good practices, helpful ideas and valuable tips voiced by the interviewed parents. The findings of the study may be of theoretical interest to linguists researching different aspects of multilingualism, and of practical interest to parents growing or planning to grow a multilingual family.