Spanish as a Heritage Language in Wallonia Intergenerational Practices, Linguistic Identities, and Family Language Policies in a Multicultural Society

Abstract

Among the various factors that influence the maintenance and use of Spanish as a heritage language, family language policies play a crucial role due to their impact on early socialization and the shaping of speaker identities. However, other factors, such as perceptions toward the inherited language, cultural ties and awareness, and identity processes also contribute to Spanish as a heritage language maintenance, sometimes independently of, or even despite, family’s language decisions. This study focuses on the case of Belgium, a sociolinguistic space characterized by multilingualism and with a growing population of Spanish speakers with migrant trajectories. Drawing on a corpus of 11 semi-directed interviews with first-, second-and third-generation Spanish speakers in the province of Liège, this study examines: 1) the types of family language policies implemented in participant’s families; 2) the link between family language policies, language ideologies, and individual perceptions regarding Spanish as a heritage language and the language(s) of the host society, linguistic identities and linguistic practices. In the discussion, particular emphasis is placed on intergenerational dynamics and participants’ accounts on maintenance, loss, and reengagement in Spanish as a heritage language (SHL), as well as on the shaping of their multilingual identities.