Language policy, multilingual encounters, and transnational families

The study of what has come to be known as family language policy has evolved and expanded significantly over the last hundred years, from its early beginnings in the diary studies of Ronjat and Leopold, to the interdisciplinary and transnational research found in this thematic issue of the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development on ‘Multilingual Encounters in Transcultural Families’, edited by Elizabeth Lanza and Li Wei. This concluding discussion analyses the ways in which the five papers in this special issue illustrate current, cutting-edge of work in the field, but also showcase the methodological breadth that has long characterised family language policy. Furthermore, as argued here, the papers suggest the ways the field has evolved over time in step with the significant changes in the field of applied linguistics and language policy in particular, as well as reckoned with the intensified forces of globalization evident in recent decades.