Multilingual Education and Family Language Policy

Abstract

In the post-Soviet realm, people confront bilingualism and diversity, combining their old views upon the ranking of different languages and statuses of certain ethnic societies with their newly adopted democratic post-socialist understanding of multiculturalism. This article takes two important theoretical issues – family language policy and multilingual education – and projects the previous findings upon possibilities and restrictions in the transmission and maintenance of Russian as a heritage language on the pre-primary and primary levels in Finland, Germany and France. An overview of the parents’ attitudes towards bilingualism in these countries demonstrates that many families are interested in bilingual or trilingual upbringing and that parents are plurilingual themselves. The strategies that the families apply to raise their children bilingually are discussed and compared. It is stated that the differences are caused by historical and personal experiences and traditions, by family composition and possibilities to maintain language academically.