Exploring Identities and Life Stories of Multilingual Transnational Couples Through the Lens of Multilinguality and Dominant Language Constellations

Abstract

As international migration is becoming a commonplace phenomenon, there is a marked increase in the number of transnational multilingual families worldwide. This contribution examines the multilingual and multicultural identities and life stories of five transnational, multilingual immigrant couples residing in Norway and aims to contribute to the study of the diverse ways in which language use by multilinguals can undergo shifts and changes as a result of international mobility. The chapter employs the notions of multilinguality and dominant language constellations (DLCs) as the theoretical lens through which the individual and social factors that shape the ways in which multilinguals define and experience themselves are examined. The data set consisted of ten personal narratives, biodata and language use data obtained through a Language Use Questionnaire adapted from Fielding and Harmon (Examining bilingual and bicultural identity in young students. For Lang Annals 46(4):527–544, 2013), as well as dominant language constellations drawn by the participants. The findings suggest that transnational multilinguals form complex and multifaceted linguistic identities as a result of immigration and constantly evolving individual language trajectories.