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Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning

Events

Presentation Jelske Dijkstra, 12th Cambridge Conference on Language Endangerment, University of Cambridge (UK)

Agenda

Conference

Researcher Jelske Dijkstra will speak in Cambridge about the joint project ‘The Intergenerational Transmission of the Frisian Language’, which is a collaboration between the German European Centre for Minority Issues, Afûk and the Mercator European Research Centre / Fryske Akademy.

The Twelfth Cambridge Conference on Language Endangerment will take place on 13 July 2026 at the University of Cambridge (UK). The theme of this edition is ‘Language Endangerment and Revitalisation: Language Planning, Variation and the Speech Community’.

Jelske Dijkstra will speak about the collaborative project ‘The intergenerational transmission of West Frisian: promoting multilingual child-rearing and supporting (future) parents’. Below is a summary of what she will present.

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Language-related Resources and Family Language Planning in West Frisian

  • Jelske Dijkstra (Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning/Fryske Akademy, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands)
  • Suzanne Dekker (Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning/Fryske Akademy, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands)
  • Ydwine Scarse (Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning/Fryske Akademy, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands)
  • Mirjam Vellinga (Afûk, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands)
  • Pavlína Heinzová (European Centre for Minority Issues, Flensburg, Germany)
  • Ruth Kircher (European Centre for Minority Issues, Flensburg, German) 

"Successful intergenerational transmission (IGT) of minority languages depends strongly on family language policy (FLP), which encompasses parents’ language beliefs, practices, and management strategies (Spolsky, 2004). Language-related resources - both parent-directed (e.g., informational materials for parents) and child-directed (e.g., books/games to support children’s language acquisition) – constitute an important form of such management. Prior research in Québec indicates that parents transmitting a migrant or Indigenous language report lower awareness and use of, and a stronger desire for, both resource types compared to parents transmitting the main societal languages (Ahooja et al., 2024). No comparable research exists for Fryslân in the Netherlands, where approximately half of all parents speak West Frisian at home, with Dutch as the national language. 

This exploratory study investigates West Frisian-transmitting parents’ awareness and use of, and desire for language-related resources in the child’s early years. In spring 2025, an online questionnaire was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data from over 500 parents. Quantitative data were analysed using regression analysis, qualitative responses were examined through a corpus-assisted discourse study. The findings will be discussed in terms of their usefulness for developing new and strengthening existing language-related resources to support the intergenerational transmission of West Frisian."

Literature

Ahooja, A., Brouillard, M., Quirk, E., Ballinger, S., Polka, L., Byers-Heinlein, K., & Kircher, R. (2024). Family language policy among Québec-based parents raising multilingual infants and toddlers: A study of resources as a form of language management. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45(7), 2445-2464: doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2050918 Spolsky, B. (2004). Language Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

 

 

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