Extending individual language policy of bilingual youths: integrating proactive and reactive language management through insights from family language policy

Based on the tripartite model of language policy developed by Spolsky, Nguyen formally introduced the concept of Individual Language Policy (ILP) in 2022 to highlight individual agency. While this framework advanced understanding of how ethnic minority bilingual youths negotiate heritage language maintenance in dominant-language environments, ILP studies have mainly emphasized reactive management–responses to external pressures–while overlooking proactive management theorized in Family Language Policy (FLP) research. Drawing on FLP insights, this paper redefines “management” in ILP to distinguish between reactive management and proactive management–self-initiated construction of linguistic environments. We propose a revised ILP framework integrating these dual forms, informed by FLP's proactive agency and Spolsky's model. The framework conceptualizes ILP trajectories along a continuum from heritage language maintenance to mainstream language transformation, as a cyclical interaction between individual-level policy processes (ideology, proactive management, and practice) and structural conditions embedded across ecological levels. These conditions can trigger reactive management while simultaneously enabling or constraining individuals’ proactive agency. By foregrounding proactive management and clarifying the dynamic relationships among ideology, proactive management, and practice, the framework provides a refined analytical tool for ILP research and offers new directions for multilingual policy research.