Anticipating the future, escaping the past: Multilingual Spanish mothers at the crossroads of multiple transitions

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses the family language biographies of two Spanish-Catalan speaking, white middle-class mothers living in Catalonia, who raise their children in English. The rationale behind their choice is informed by the mothers’ experiences when trying to learn English as young adults in the late 1980s, mediated by their present socioeconomic conditions. In order to lay the groundwork for what is framed as a ‘good’ future for their children, these mothers embark upon a course of action designed to expose their children to English. The analysis, drawing upon a language biography approach and social positioning, reveals the role of parents’ pasts for the construction of the future. Beyond the widely understood tropes regarding the commodification of English within neoliberalism, the families’ actions reveal ideologies and future orientations informed by a complex interplay of historical, political, and economic factors wherein speaking English has become one of the markers of social access. (Family language biographies, Catalan children raised in English, anticipation, futurity)

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