Introduction

At present, the intensity and dynamism of the processes taking place in the space of modern society, its innovative, communication and information richness necessitate a prompt response of fundamental social institutions to its varied demands to implement the most ambitious projects of advanced development in the modern multicultural world of information civilization.

Against this background, the social institution of the family is assigned a key role not only due to the specificity of the functions it performs and the fact that all the features of society, the seeds of its stability or instability are laid in it, but also as a social education that has vast experience in forming priority norms and values, attitudes and traditions in the process of socialization of young generations, able to cope with the task of their education at a level that allows them to function effectively in the multilingual space of economic and cultural exchanges, solving the problems of the country’s prospective development.

Under the conditions of today, due to acceleration of the rate of development of society, is evident an enhanced role and increased importance of the social institution of the family in the formation of a polylingual personality, backed by knowledge of the native language, which is capable of functioning in a digital, multiethnic-confessional environment in accordance with the principles of mutual tolerance.

Methods

The purpose of this article is to study the role of the modern family in the education of a new individual who has professional and personal characteristics required by modern society, and knowledge that provides them with a competitive advantage in various sectors of the economy, easily adaptable to the environment of digital technologies and linguistic diversity.

This purpose determined the authors’ desire to analyze the language attitudes of the modern family, and moreover, to trace the dynamics of their changes in the context of the strategy of quantitative and qualitative analysis. The data of sociological studies conducted by a research group with the immediate participation of the authors of the article for the period 2016-2019 have become an inexhaustible source of empirical material. The research was carried out both in the form of representative mass surveys and in the form of in-depth interviews with representatives of various generations of families living in the multi-ethnic region of Russia – the Republic of Tatarstan.

Results and Discussion

The study analyzes the nature of the real, deep-seated life problems inherent in the social institution of the family, the peculiarities of the family’s performance of their functions, assessing the degree of influence of the family on the processes taking place in society.

The research materials enabled to trace the dynamics and identify the nature of changes occurring in the family’s attitudes regarding the acquisition and learning of languages, to record the mainstream transformation of respondents’ opinions

Under modern conditions, the ability of a family to bring up a bilingual, multilingual personality who is about to master and preserve the native language, is determined in many aspects by attitudes of the parents and the so-called language planning. As noted by S. Wilson, there is possible impact of parents’ language planning decisions on children’s experiences. The findings reveal the unique character of every child’s bilingual experience, also indicate that children’s perspectives may differ greatly from their parents’, potentially leading to disharmony within the family. A more integrative approach to research, including children’s views, is essential to understand the ramifications of parental language planning (WILSON, 2020).

An important aspect of studying the role of the family in the formation of children’s bilingualism focuses on issues related to the formation and development of bilingualism in the educational environment of educational institutions. At the same time, researchers draw attention to the need for active cooperation of parents with the educational system in finding the most effective ways, methods and techniques for the formation of bilingualism (BOULT, 2016; BAKER, 1996; DOS SANTOS, 2019; EFLOVA; MAXIMOVA, 2019; EPSTEIN, 2011; GARCÍA; LIN; MAY, 2017; SCHWARTZ; VERSCHIK, 2013).

As an indicator determined by numerous social factors (the situation in the country, region, features of socio-economic development, the state of interethnic relations, etc.), family language planning reflects and evaluates the degree of satisfaction of this small social group with the real world through the prism of perception of various aspects of life which represent different generations of the family, their subjective assessment of reality. Müller, Howard, Wilson, Gibson and Katsos, having studied 1433 texts from scholarly papers dealing with the problem of bilingualism in the family reach the conclusion that the studies suggest a positive link between minority language maintenance and child well-being, and a positive influence of bilingualism, rather than knowledge only of home or majority language (MÜLLER et al., 2020).

As for the data in the regional context, according to the results of our representative survey of the population of the multi-ethnic region of Russia (n = 1480 people), the answers of respondents are revealing on questions about the relations of different generations of the family. They refute the often held opinion that the connection between generations has disintegrated and that young people have lost their life orientations (53.4%). Regardless of whether different generations of families live together or apart from each other, they often or rarely meet and communicate, 91.8% of respondents characterize the relations between representatives of different generations of their families as warm and good. Thus, the given data make it possible to conclude that the social well-being of a family, considerably determined by the modern social context in which it functions and its internal situation, demonstrates a fairly high indicator that is absolutely not comparable in magnitude, for example, with the numerical indicators of crisis periods. Accordingly, it is legitimate to say that the general state of a modern family allows it to sufficiently realize its functions, including the education of a bilingual personality, having formed an intrafamily environment predisposing to mastering several languages.

Quantitative indicators, however, are not always able to fully capture and reflect the deep processes occurring in the family, therefore, its qualitative study, based on the analysis of in-depth interviews, made it possible to fill the numerical data with deeper content and meaning, carry out a comparative analysis of their content over a two-year period.

The family value for the younger generation of the family remains unchanged. In their assessments, there are no notes of alienation in relation to the generations of parents and grandparents, and an understanding of the role of older generation in the life of younger ones increasingly prevails, “I love my parents, they gave me a lot in life. They are well educated people, so I always have something to learn from them” (man, 19 years old). The informants have developed a concrete view of the process of linguistic continuity in the family, confirmed by a clear argumentation of the standpoint about the need to know their native language, “Every child who respects an older family member should consider it a duty to know the native language of father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, it cannot be otherwise... Naturally, the foundations of the Tatar language were “laid” in me by my grandparents” (man, 18 years old); “The family is like a small state in which new members of society develop. In families, parents closely monitor the upbringing of their children, try to instill in them as much useful knowledge as possible, teach them different sciences and languages” (woman, 19 years old).

Young people of the modern generation are not only imbued with an understanding of the importance of intergenerational family relations, but also with responsibility before representatives of the older generations, the need to take care of them, “[…] I have two grandmothers. They took care of me a lot in my boyhood days. Now that I have matured, it is my turn to take care of them, and I do it without a shadow of a doubt, because I love them very much and thank for the warmth they gave me” (man, 18 years old), which is illustrative of the continuity of the flow ascendent intergenerational transfers in the family.

The family space is still considered as the center of warm and kind relations of understanding, psychological and emotional comfort, joint rational understanding of emerging problems and timely succor in solving them, “My family is the people you can trust. They will never betray, they will always support and help in my extreme needs” (woman, 17 years old); “I have exceptional relations with my relatives, I have a friendly family that will always help and support in an hour of need” (woman, 18 years old).

This type of intrafamily relations not only gives the family stability, fundamental strength and harmony, but is also able to ensure the formation of an environment of linguistic tolerance in which family members are about to learn several languages and preserve their native language,

It happened in our family that parents are fluent in several languages, which they teach their children. Dad and mom speak pure Russian, Tatar and English. Dad is also fully conversant in the Uzbek language, for he spent all his childhood and youth in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. My sister has been studying English since her early age, she can speak it well. She is also studying Chinese now. We try to speak the Tatar language in our family (woman, 18 years old).

It is essential to develop languages in the family: the child must hear speech in different languages. Unfortunately, this is not possible in all families. Family communication in several languages can make the child all-round and gives them an added boost of confidence (man, 19 years old).

This position in a peculiar way comprehends the point of view of many representatives of the younger generation of families, who claim that the established order of communication in different languages contributes to forming a close-knit family group,

Speaking two or more languages strengthens family relationship. In my family, for example, this even creates topics for conversation, since not all words of one language can be translated into another, then we are trying to figure out how this or that word is translated, an expression that unites and strengthens family relations (man, 18 years old).

Those families in which the spoken language is not only their native language, but also a foreign language, or even two ones, are stronger, in my opinion. To prove my point, I will give the following explanation. The more common interests the family has, the stronger it is. Spoken languages are no exception. The family begins to learn a language, even more common interests appear and, accordingly, the family becomes stronger (woman, 19 years old).

As the study has shown, for representatives of the younger generations, the space of a family with a tolerant language culture of multilingualism can provide sustainable, vital stability with an atmosphere of emotional poise. Therefore, the need to improve the knowledge of native language via an immediate experience of the elders, passing it on to successive generations is fully realized, understood and accepted,

There is a linguistic continuity in my family, my parents have passed on to me not only the language, but also the history of my nationality and inculcated me with an interest in it. I consider the Tatar language my mother tongue. And from my parents I took on it. I would like my children to know the language that I consider to be my native language, because for me it is memorizing our history and showing respect for the grandparents (woman, 20 years old).

The foundations of language knowledge and motivation for learning languages cannot be laid without the participation of the social institution of family in this process, “...after all, first of all, the knowledge of languages of children at the initial stage of their life depends on the family” (man, 19 years old). A formulated order of the younger generations to the family and the education system is clear – to form an interest and motivation for language acquisition in the process of learning languages. They write about this in their essays, “If there is no motivation and the very desire to learn a language, then a person will not learn it, because, in my opinion, any human activity is aimed at obtaining a result. And what result can be expected from what you have no interest in!” (man, 18 years old), “It is difficult to master a second language if it is suggested being a subject of study, and there is no motivation. The motivation is necessary for more successful language learning” (man, 19 years old).

Representatives of the younger generation of families who are part of the consumer society in the era of information technologies and virtual worlds, and pragmatists at the core, are accustomed to assessing the need to perform any action, for example, acquiring knowledge from the standpoint of their own convenience, practical use in the future, scope and proportionality of the efforts they are expending to the result obtained, the presence of interest in this process. Therefore, essential are new mechanisms of motivation, impetus, forms of material presentation, appropriate for the demands of modern generation. Otherwise, there will be a situation as described by the informant,

At school I learnt English from the first grade. In elementary school there was some interest in learning it, but then it disappeared because I did not see an impetus for it. After my first trip abroad to a European country, I have gained this impetus. Therefore, I have continued to study English at school. Unfortunately, no one in my family speaks English, and my parents had no desire to learn English. Because of the lack of practice, my desire to learn English gradually began to disappear. At the moment I am trying to get this practice speaking English with people on the Internet, playing computer games with them (man, 18 years old).

The answer to repletion of a desire for language skills, including knowledge of the mother tongue, can be innovative family practices, for example, a positive example of parents,

Knowledge of languages, in my opinion, comes from the family, knowledge of the language by the very parent stirs up the children’s interest in learning them” (woman, 18 years old);

My parents speak only Russian, but my mother began to study the Tatar language and sometimes speaks it. I have always liked the speech of the Tatar language. Following her example, I also have got a desire to study it as a spoken language, although I have never had a desire to study it as a subject (man, 18 years old).

The representatives of younger generations of families are not frightened by the linguistic polyphony of the modern world. They do more than not having a sense of discomfort when they hear a conversation in another language that they do not understand, but, on the contrary, show interest, “I get curious when people next to me are speaking a language I don’t know” (man, 18 years old); “I am very interested when people next to me are speaking a language unknown to me, during their communication you can observe their manner, gestures, which is very exciting” (man, 18 years old); “When, next to me, people communicate in a language I do not understand, I do not feel discomfort, on the contrary, I listen with pleasure, because all languages are beautiful by their pronunciation” (woman, 18 years old).

The informants actively strive for dialogue with other people, “When people communicate in a language I don’t understand, yes, indeed, I want to understand them and communicate with them in that language” (woman, 18 years old).

Summary

Thus, the younger generation demonstrates a consistently high level of motivational readiness to learn languages. At the same time, this level is so high that it even encourages them to master languages independently, without any coercion from parents or teachers, showing exclusively their own initiative in this matter.

Of course, under modern conditions, knowledge of several languages has become an important content of professional activity, expanded access to information pushed the boundaries of international contacts, but the violation and weakening of the process of continuity of language in the family can have serious negative consequences, when “with every generation the language will be forgotten and may become dead. Then people will forget about the continuity of the language” and as a result – “the children will not be able to talk with their ancestors and the link between generations will be interrupted” (woman, 18 years old).

Conclusions

Educational directions formed in the space of the family’s linguistic culture where there is no indifference and standoffishness toward studying a native language, there is a standpoint of respectful, tolerant attitude to other languages, it determines the speed, quality and level of mastering languages that are not native to an individual. In turn, language exchange in the space of family language diversity contributes to the formation of natural bilingualism, an increase in the level of culture in relations. Avoiding the situation of distancing young generations from their native language is possible through younger generations’ awareness of its value, of its creative potential, capable of spiritually enriching a person, ensuring a comfortable inclusion in the system of values and norms familiar to them, social ties, where they feel support in difficult life moments.

Language as the basis of the culture of any nation should be reproduced by each new generation of the family, along with its history, customs, traditions and values. It is no coincidence that, therefore, a characteristic feature of most interviews is the informants’ understanding of the need to master their native language as an important element of the system of spiritual values of their people, “the soul of their people”.

In general, it can be stated that a high degree of openness of young generations to the powerful information flows of the multilingual world requires the multifunctional institution of the family to effectively implement the process of socialization in relation to the formation of linguistic attitudes and values among young people, which allow them, without indifference to their native language, to master others. From this perspective, a balanced and well-thought-out language policy of the family is able to form a personality to whom the future of a multinational country will be entrusted.

Acknowledgments

The work is performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University. The reported study was funded by RFBR and EISR, project number 20-011-31655.

REFERENCES

BAKER, C. Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. 2. ed. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1996.

BOULT, B. 201 ways to involve parents. Practical strategies for partnering with families. 3. ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2016. 147 p.

DOS SANTOS, L. M. Bilingual English education: expectation of parents who enrol their children in bilingual primary schools. International Journal of Instruction, v. 12, n. 4, p. 747-766, 2019.

EFLOVA, M.; MAXIMOVA, O. Formation of the bilingual personality of a child in the family: Philosophical reflection. Utopia y Praxis Latinoamericana, v. 24, n. esp. 5, p. 25-31. 2019.

EPSTEIN, J. L. School, family and community partnerships: preparing educators and improving schools. 2. ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2011.

GARCÍA, O.; LIN, A. M. Y.; MAY, S. Bilingual and multilingual education. Springer International Publishing, 2017.

MÜLLER, L.-M. et al. Bilingualism in the family and child well-being: a scoping review. International Journal of Bilingualism, v. 24, n. 5-6, p. 1049-1070, 2020. DOI: 10.1177/1367006920920939

SCHWARTZ, M.; VERSCHIK, A. Successful family language policy: parents, children and educators in interaction. Dordrecht: Springer, 2013.

WILSON, S. Family language policy through the eyes of bilingual children: the case of French heritage speakers in the UK. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, v. 41, n. 2, p. 121-139, 2020. DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2019.1595633

Notas de autor

Información adicional

How to reference this article: EFLOVA, M. I.; MAXIMOVA, O. A.; MINZARIPOV, R. G.; NAGMATULLINA, L. K. Dynamics of changing language attitudes and values of the modern family. Revista on line de Política e Gestão Educacional, Araraquara, v. 25, n. esp. 2, p. 759-768, May 2021. e-ISSN:1519-9029. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22633/rpge.v25iesp.2.15258