‘I don’t like them to know I’m Syrian ’: family language policy amongst Syrian refugees in Türkiye

This study investigates an emerging area of inquiry: refugee family language policy (FLP), through examining the practices, management and ideologies of FLP among Syrian refugee families in Türkiye. It also examines the multilingualism of the children and their parents’ attitudes towards languages, focusing on heritage language maintenance (HLM). The study aims to understand how Syrian refugee families in Türkiye construct, negotiate and implement their FLP. Applying a qualitative approach, the study employed semi-structured interviews with ten families and language portraits coloured by seven children. Language portraits were used as a tool to make children’s multilingualism visible by using colours to present their linguistic repertoire. Thematic analysis using a coding scheme was used to analyse the data. The findings revealed different views by parents and children about language practices, management and ideologies.