Family Language Policy

This commentary outlines the key contributions of the issue. Addressing various language attitudes and ideologies held by family members, the commentary highlights the major themes of the collected articles, addressing important issues in the maintenance of home languages and development of minoritised languages as well as interactions between families and the wider society. In particular, it looks into why heritage and minoritised languages are difficult to maintain and develop in multilingual contexts. The commentary emphasises how families constantly interact with broader sociocultural, sociohistorical, and sociopolitical contexts and outlines the agentive role of family members in accommodating or resisting language change. It highlights the key topics, theoretical contributions, and methodological issues in this issue.