Family language policy: the impact of multilingual experiences at university and language practices at home

This article presents the findings from a study that explored how the language practices and management to which 156 students from universities in China reported being exposed at home, alongside their language beliefs, use of their entire linguistic repertoire when reading, listening, speaking, and writing at university, and emotions related to being multilingual predicted the language practices and management they envisioned for their own families. Data were gathered through a comprehensive questionnaire administered on campus. The results revealed that the more participants reported exposure to multilingual language practices at home and the stronger their beliefs in the benefits of a multilingual upbringing, the more determined they were to implement multilingual language practices with their own families. Moreover, using languages fluidly at university correlated positively with participants' desire to adopt a more conscious approach to language management in their future families.