Emotions in digital heritage language use

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Tazin Abdullah chats with Dr. Priyanka Bose. Priyanka is a lecturer in English Literacy Education at the School of Education at Western Sydney University, Australia and winner of the 2026 Michael Clyne Prize for outstanding postgraduate research into immigrant bilingualism and language contact.

Tazin and Priyanka talk about Priyanka’s research into heritage language maintenance amongst Bengali speakers in Australia and how emotions play a decisive role in sustaining heritage language use via digital means. Their conversation about Bengali transnational families explores how grandparents and grandchildren use all the resources in their linguistic repertoire in combination with the affordances of digital media to communicate in and maintain Bengali. In these exchanges, emotional factors play a crucial role, setting the scene for the continued use of Bengali between generations.

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References

Bose, P., Gao, X., Starfield, S., & Perera, N. (2024). Understanding networked family language policy: a study among Bengali immigrants in Australia. Current Issues in Language Planning, 25(4), 416–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2024.2349405
Bose, P., Gao, X., Starfield, S., Sun, S., & Ramdani, J. M. (2023). Conceptualisation of family and language practice in family language policy research on migrants: a systematic review. Language Policy, 22(3), 343–365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-023-09661-8
Bose, P., Starfield, S., & Perera, N. (2025). ‘Ōlē bābālē!!!’ – Exploring emotions and digital language practices in family language policy among Bengali transnational families: A multimodal approach. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13670069251336173. https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069251336173

Transcript

Tazin:

Welcome to the Language on the Move Podcast, a channel on the New Books Network. My name is Tazin, and I’m a PhD researcher in Linguistics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

My guest today is Dr. Priyanka Bose. Priyanka is a Lecturer in English Literacy Education at the School of Education at Western Sydney University, Australia. She completed her PhD at the University of New South Wales. Her PhD thesis about digital media communications amongst Bengali-speaking transnational families in Australia is the winner of the 2026 Michael Clyne Prize!

The Michael Clyne Prize, jointly administered by the Australian Linguistic Society and the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia, is awarded for outstanding postgraduate research into immigrant bilingualism and language contact.

So, I am very excited today to learn about Priyanka’s outstanding research on heritage language maintenance, with a special focus on her 2026 article: ‘Ōlē bābālē!!!😘😘😘’ – Exploring emotions and digital language practices in family language policy among Bengali transnational families: A multimodal approach, that she co-authored with Professor Sue Starfield and Dr. Nirukshi Perera.

Tazin: Priyanka, welcome to the show and thank you so much for joining us today!

Dr. Priyanka Bose: Thanks very much, Tazin, for inviting me to the podcast. It’s really exciting for me too!

Tazin: Well, firstly, congratulations on winning the Michael Klein Prize! What an achievement!

Dr. Priyanka Bose: Haha, thanks!

Tazin: Would you begin by telling us a little bit about yourself, your research, and how you came to be interested in heritage language maintenance?

Dr. Priyanka Bose: Yeah, sure. First of all, I say, like, receiving this, Michael Clyne Prize Award is very, meaningful to me. Particularly, because, as you know, Michael Clyne’s work has had such a lasting influence on research into migration, language maintenance, and multilingualism, you see.

In regard to my academic journey, it has been influenced by a kind of a, I say, a long-standing interest in literacy, language, education and multilingualism. I myself am also an immigrant, came from an immigrant families and I grew up in a multicultural environment in… firstly in India, and then part of my schooling is in India, and also, also, I, later immigrated to Canada. So, and then. And after that, I’m later conducting research in Australia. So, I became fascinated by the ways language actually influenced people’s identities, family relationships, opportunities, learning experiences.

Also, I should say that, you know, a very important influence in my life was my maternal grandfather, the late Sir Sir Rabindranath Palodhi, a Bengali grammarian, linguist, and teacher in West Bengal, India. So, from an early age, he introduced me to language, literature. So, when I was very young, just the child, I just got the knowledge of, like, the structures of Bengali grammar. Also the English, how the…actually the grammar operates. And that, like, influenced me. And not only that, he also, I think, influenced me to do literature, all sorts of literature, philosophy, and critical thinking. So, that has helped me, in the sense, to see language is actually not only, I think, I say, a means of communication. But also as a way to understand the society and human experience. Um…so those interests led me to the applied linguistics and more to the heritage language maintenance.

In regard to my doctoral research at UNSW, I explored, how immigrant families in Australia maintain their heritage languages through digital communication among transnational family members. While digital communication was one of the focus of the study, I was more broadly interested in understanding how the factors, such as emotion, culture, religion, identity, family, relationships – all those things, and transnational connections influence language practices among these multilingual families. And what drew me to the heritage language maintenance was the recognition that language is connected to belonging, culture, and intergenerational relationships.

For many, immigrant families, maintaining a heritage language is about much more than preserving linguistic skills. So, to these, to these families, it is about cultural knowledge and family bonds across generations and across borders. So my research seeks to understand these complex realities, And to highlight the, these, such, linguistic resources, that such multilingual families bring to their contemporary societies.

Tazin: Wow! I mean, what an interesting journey, and thank you for sharing the story of your grandfather. It looks like you were meant to be an Applied Linguist, Priyanka!

Dr. Priyanka Bose: Thank you!

Tazin: But that is a lovely story, and I love, you know, how you have told us about your personal investment into your research journey, and how you view language. And I’d like to turn to your paper now about digital language practices in family language policy.

Would you explain to us what Family Language Policy – FLP – is? And in your paper, you refer to nFLP, Networked Family Language Policy. What do these terms mean in the context of heritage language maintenance?

Dr. Priyanka Bose: Well, that’s a very interesting question, and thanks, Tazin, for asking. Family language policy, or FLP, refers to language-related beliefs management and practice families adopt in their everyday life. It’s drawing on Bernard Splosky’s framework. It is FLP is often understood through three interconnected components. As you say, language ideology, that is, the beliefs or views about language. Language management, referring to the deliberate efforts to influence the language use. And language practice is the actual use, the family mem…actual languages that family members use in their daily interaction.

So, in the context of heritage language maintenance, FLP means, FLP helps us, understand how families decide whether to transmit a heritage language to the next generations. And how those decisions influence, this immigrant children’s language use and identity development among, among their families.

So, traditionally, like, so far, FLP research focused on families living together in the same physical location where language practices were, largely understood as face-to-face interactions between parents and children. However, the migration, transnationalism, and the due to the rapid growth of the digital communication technologies – all of these have transformed the family life. And many immigrant families now maintain close relationships with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives who live in different countries. And these relationships are often sustained through digital platforms, such as WhatsApp, FaceTime, say, Facebook Messenger. So, this changing reality has led to the concept of Networked Family Language Policy, or nFLP. The term, as you see the term nFLP, originally proposed by Professor Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen and Huang. But, so, but I, what I did, I explored in my study of Bengali immigrant families in Australia. And, and that recognizes…this study recognizes that language socialization and heritage language maintenance, they are no longer confined to the physical home. As the term implied, they occur the term, the word network occur across networks of family members, connected through digital media and across national borders.

In our study, we found that dispersed family members, particularly grandparents, played a significant role in supporting the children’s use of Bengali through digital, day-to-day digital communications. And these interactions included, storytelling, conversations, sharing the cultural knowledge, exchanging festival greetings, singing songs, and discussing their everyday experiences. So, importantly, we found that maintaining heritage language was often intertwined with maintaining the family bonds, cultural identity and emotional connections.

In fact, many parents viewed the family…that, they said, actually, in their interview, that family bonding as the primary reason, reason for these digital interactions. While heritage language learning is secondary, or emerged as kind of like a valuable secondary outcome, with no need…

Tazin: Oh, interesting!

Dr. Priyanka Bose: No need to have the kind of, like, reading or writing. We just need to…um…want our child to maintain the communication so that they maintain the bonds. So that’s what I found very interesting. While FLP helps us understand how families manage language within home, I say, nFLP expands that perspective by recognizing that language maintenance today happens across transnational family networks and through digital communication technologies. So, it highlights the important contribution of the extended family members, digital media, emotions, culture, identity in supporting heritage language maintenance in migrant communities.

Tazin: I think then, you know, the concept of nFLP is highly relevant to our, you know, current context, especially your focus on how people use the digital tools. And in your paper, you write, and I’ll quote from there. I really like this quote, and that’s why I used it in my question. You write: “The role of emotions in HL has long since been realised by sociolinguistics researchers, even when digital media was not commonplace and the nFLP context was irrelevant.” Why are emotions significant to consider when discussing heritage language communications?

Dr. Priyanka Bose: That’s a great question, Tazin, I think and thanks for asking. Because heritage language maintenance is often discussed in terms of linguistic skills, language transmission, or educational outcomes. But language is deeply emotional, I think. In our paper, co-authored by Emeritus Professor Sue Starfield and Dr. Nirkshi Pereira, and along with myself, we argue that emotions matter. Because heritage languages are often the languages of intimacy, family relationships, and personal connections.

For many, say, immigrant families, using a heritage language is not simply about communicating information. So, it expresses affection, maintains relationships. Creates, creates a sense of belonging across generations. Research has shown that heritage language often carry strong emotional associations that develop through family interactions and socialization from childhood.

In transnational families, emotions matter even more. Grandparents, parents, children may live in different countries, and they’re unable to meet in person often. So, the only way is digital communication technologies, like WhatsApp, say, Facebook Messenger, and video calls, that help bridge that distance. So, through these interactions, family members share not only language. But also emotions through speech, facial expressions, gestures, photographs. They exchange lots of photos, videos, emojis, and other multimodal, resources. So, our study found that, I think I showed, emotional factors such as emotional contagion and digitally mediated effective communication. So these, these two factors played a central role in heritage language practice.

For example, when children and grandparents share excitement, laughter, affection, encouragement, or playfulness during online interactions. These exchanges create a meaningful, meaningful opportunities to use Bengali language. We observed that children were often motivated to engage with their grandparents because of the emotional relationships, rather than because they were intentionally trying to practice the Bengali language. Okay, have to sit and practice!

Tazin: Hmm.

Dr. Priyanka Bose: They wouldn’t do it. So, heritage language maintenance emerged naturally, what I say, through those emotionally rich interactions. And one key finding was that family bonding, I think, I said that was the primary goal of this digital wild heritage language was a secondary. So, children communicated with their grandparents because they loved them. They missed them, they enjoyed interacting with them. And especially, I took my, interview, the interview was taken, like, during the COVID, when they can’t go, and they were missing, their lots. So, they wanted to stay connected. Bengali became the vehicle through which they maintained those emotional, relationships.

So, when discussing heritage language communication, it is important to consider the emotion, because language maintenance is not only a linguistic process, I say, but also a relational and affective one. And understanding emotions helps us to see why families continue to invest time and effort in heritage language use, and how how strong are these emotional bonds, and, create meaningful and sustainable opportunities for language maintenance across generations and borders.

Tazin: I’m so fascinated by this, Priyanka, also because, you know, you and I are both Bengali speakers, right? And as you were answering my last question, I just remembered, I mean, an example from last week, you know, in my own life. So, my son wanted to go to his grandparents’ house after school.

And I realized this, I’m making this connection now after actually listening to you, right? Where I know that he could…and he was hungry, right? So he could have…he could have called and asked her in English, you know, can I come over? Or whatever it was, and they would have had, perfectly…and they would have understood each other perfectly.

But my mom told me that he called her from school and asked after school, and asked in Bangla,” তোমার বাসায় খাওয়া আছে?”(tomar bashay khawa achey?) translated, “Is there food at your house?” It’s a very dry sentence, I know, but it is interesting that he chose to ask that in Bengali, instead of calling and asking in English, can I come over and eat? And that really pulled at the heartstrings of my mom, because she said, of course, of course, come…there is so much food.

Dr. Priyanka Bose: Oh yeah, so that’s the emotion.

Tazin: That’s the emotion, and you’re correct, because my mom rang me later to say that he had told me in Bengali…instead of saying can I come, just to say do you have food in the house?

Dr. Priyanka Bose: So that’s, like, that’s the bonding, yeah, it’s created.

Tazin: Yeah, and that probably, as you said, is the emotional pull is what encouraged him to use his heritage language rather than English for communication.

I was also, Priyanka, very drawn to the emojis in the title of your paper. For our listeners, when you access the blog post for this podcast, you will find a link to Priyanka’s paper. And you will see that the title has 3 little emojis on it, which I found very interesting. Now, Priyanka, why the choice of the quote with emojis, and how is this connected to your research on emotions?

Dr. Priyanka Bose: I’m glad, Tazin, you noticed the emojis, because they were a very deliberate choice. And I understand that being a Bengali, you can understand what the meaning is, but yeah, I think I also explained that in our paper.

So, the title of the paper, “‘Ōlē bābālē”, comes directly from one of the digital interactions we observed between a Bengali-speaking child of our participant and her grandparent. Rather than choosing a conventional academic title, I wanted the title itself to reflect the lived, lived reality of contemporary fam…family communication.

So, the phrase ‘Ōlē bābālē is a Bengali expression, that conveys affection, warmth, and playful interactions, especially from elders…senior family members to the kids or childs. So, they’re showing the warmth and affection, and that actually helps, you know, for the bonding. So that’s why I thought…that’s…among the participants I chose, I thought that this would show our good bonding, this particular term.

And the emojis…add layers of meaning! That actually the participant exactly given three…this, I think…these three face-blowing kiss emoji, add that…that add layers of meaning that would be difficult to convey in words alone, I think. And in digital communication, people express, often, emotions beyond language. They also use emojis, images, GIFs, voice notes, any other multimodal resources to communicate the feelings and maintain relationships. So, this connected closely to the paper’s central argument that emotions play a crucial role in heritage language maintenance.

So, when we look at interactions between children and grandparents across the national borders, we found that heritage language use was often embedded within moments of affection, humor, teasing, excitement, and care, love and care. So, emojis became one tool for communicating and sharing these emotions. What, what I found particularly interesting was that children were not necessarily engaging in this interaction to learn or practice that Bengali language. They were communicating because they wanted to connect with their grandparents, because they loved them, they missed them, that kind of.

So the emotional…again, I say emotional bond came first, and heritage language, secondary. Those kind of and emojis, therefore, symbolize the importance of these digitally mediated interactions. So, overall, I said this title, challenges to rethink what counts as language in today’s digital world And to understand how heritage languages are maintained among transnational families, we need to look beyond spoken or written words, and pay attention to the broader communicative repertoire families use, including emojis and other digital resources. So, therefore, those three emojis in the title tell us as much about contemporary family communication as the words themselves.

I have also another paper, like, in multimodal communication, where I just showed, like, how, one, like, grandma with the child, same thing, multimodal, they are just turning their mobile phone from, upside down to this side, so just to. And then they were, like, they were kissing each other to showing affection and the languages, so that’s also a kind of emotion, yeah, how the interactions happen. Yeah, thank you.

Tazin: It is fascinating, you know, how grandparents have very quickly adapted to using whatever technology is at hand to be able to talk. I’m also very interested, Priyanka, in how you collected the data for this project, who were your participants, and what did you observe them doing to gather your data?

Dr. Priyanka Bose: Yes, first, this research is a part of my larger PhD project. For this study, I worked with 5 Bengali immigrant families living in Australia. The families had young children and maintained regular contact with their relatives, particularly grandparents who were living overseas. I used a qualitative ethnographic approach, focusing on understanding family language practices in their, natural, everyday contexts.

Data collection took place over an extended period of time and involved multiple methods, including interview with parents, observations, recordings that participants provided of digital interactions between children and their transnational family members. And, one particularly interesting aspect of the study was to observe the actual digital communication, such as video calls and exchanges, through platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. And also they gave the, rather than simply asking participants what they did, I could see how they communicate, what languages they used, and how they interacted in real-life situations. So, the participants actually provided me those, video data, and also the screenshots, like, for the from the WhatsApp and all, so that actually I’m being able to observe all those.

I was also especially interested in the interactions between children and grandparents, because during these exchanges, I observed not only Bengali and English, but also digital resources, as you say, emojis, videos, gestures, all the facial expression. So, these kind of…these helped me, helped family members, like, these multimodal forms helped those…I can find that those family members express emotions, maintained relationships. Even living in different countries.

The data showed that heritage language maintenance was closely intertwined with family relationships. The children often did not participate in this interaction because they were formally taught Bengali, kind of that. Instead, they just, you know, shared jokes, told stories, kind of, like, stay connected with their loved ones, kind of. So, by observing this, I examined how emotional connections and digital technologies together contributed to heritage language maintenance among these transnational families. And one strength was that it, it let me move beyond language as just words. I can say and repeat, I see communication as a major social and emotional process, and that perspective ultimately led to many of the findings presented in the paper.

Tazin: I really enjoyed reading about Isha and her grandmother’s interactions, and the screenshots of their video calls that you put on your paper, which were excellent to, you know, just read about. Please tell us a little bit about what you’ve found from these. What are the emotional factors that appeared in these conversations via digital means?

Dr. Priyanka Bose: I’m glad to hear that, Tazin, because Isha and her grandmother’s interaction was some of the most memorable examples in the study. So, these two, they were so enthusiastic, and I think I’ve used in my other paper, as I say, in multimodal communication. What struck me most was how much emotion these digital interactions conveyed, even though the family members were separated by thousands of kilometres, say.

So, we often think of video calls as a substitute for face-to-face communication, but in this case, actually, they became a very rich social space where emotional connections could be created and maintained. One of the strongest findings was the importance of affection, humor, emotional connections, and playfulness. So, through video calls, Isha and her grandmother shared jokes, stories, laughter, and everyday, day-to-day, you know, interactions and experiences. So, these interactions shows that emotions were communicated through language as well as facial expressions, gestures and other digital resources.

As you see, like, they were…the child Isha was constantly changing the background, and they were so happy, and they were, like, the grandma is, like, actually happy, and they were…they were exchanging their happiness among themselves. So that’s one of the emotions.

Importantly, Bengali was being used not only as a learning exercise, but as a part of this meaningful, family relationships. So, I say, again, these highlights how emotional bonds can support heritage language maintenance.

Tazin: Yeah, you know, I mean, obviously I wasn’t listening to them or observing them, but just reading about them, I could tell that they were having a very playful, you know, fun interaction with each other, which is lovely. So, Priyanka, what can Australian immigrant families take from your study? What can they take away for their own heritage language maintenance practices?

Dr. Priyanka Bose: One key message is that heritage language maintenance does not have to rely solely on formal teaching. I say meaningful and enjoyable interactions can be just as important as it is. And the study also highlights the value of digital communication. Regular contact with family, grandparents and other extended family members overseas can create, authentic opportunities for these immigrant children, to use a heritage language while, strengthening family relationships.

And in many cases, maintaining the relationships comes first. And language maintenance, it just happens, it will follow naturally. So, yeah, I think that’s…that’s I can say, see.

Tazin: Well, you know, I’ve learned something from reading your paper and listening to you today, because I, I mean, I haven’t really I didn’t really put it into perspective in that way, that it is the relationships that actually encourage the use of the language. So, thank you so much for, you know, making this valuable contribution to my life today as well, Priyanka!

My final question for you is, what is next for you, and what other projects are you working on now?

Dr. Priyanka Bose: Yeah, yeah, I just want to share one, one thing before I go to my next project, is that, like, our… I started, you know, first conceptualizing family language policy as digital, and that has been published in 2021 in Language Policy journal. So, that has been featured in Nature Index article, Exploring Family Language Policy and…

Tazin: Wow!

Dr. Priyanka Bose: practices. So, if you, as a researcher interested in multilingual families, language practices of all those immigrant communities, it is, I think it is encouraging for people to see this, this area receiving a big attention. I would encourage you to, look if you, there, in the Nature Index, Family Language Policy and Multilingual Practices. So, this is one.

And, I’m currently working on an upcoming book chapter with colleagues from Curtin University titled, Sharing Your Research with a Wider Audience. Communicating with the Public. How to communicate, like, just in a public, in a natural day-to-day language. In it, we reflect, so we, me with other, other, two Curtin University colleagues, reflect on how academics can engage broader audiences through media, public talks, storytelling, and other creative approaches.

I’m also delighted, also, to be invited. I have been invited by Professor Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen to participate in a symposium at the AILA conference in Vancouver next year.

Tazin: Congratulations!

Dr. Priyanka Bose: Thank you so much. I think…I haven’t thought that it just came, where I’ll be discussing on family language policy, heritage language maintenance, children’s language and literacy development in multilingual families. I hope, yeah, yeah, I would see many of you guys.

And, also, like, I recently joined, WSU as a lecturer, and there also, like, like, I’m also involved in their research projects. I have been just in discussion…we are just thinking of, doing a research project in some school-related, things, but I haven’t…I didn’t know…I am still exploring for that.

And more broadly, I hope to continue researching multilingualism, child language acquisition, family language policy, and heritage language maintenance. While also I’m thinking to explore other, like, many other, like, similar ways or other research to make academic research more accessible to the wider community, I think.

Tazin: That’s amazing! Thank you again for your time today, Priyanka, and we look forward to reading more of your work.

Dr. Priyanka Bose: Thank you so much, Tazin. It’s really nice, and it’s really fortunate, that, yeah, I’ve been invited for the podcast, yeah.

Tazin: Oh, our pleasure!

Dr. Priyanka Bose: Thanks to Ingrid, the whole team.

Tazin: Thank you! We were very happy to have this conversation. Like I said, it’s been a very meaningful conversation. I have learned a lot from it, and I’m sure our listeners have as well!

And thanks you for listening, everyone! If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe to our channel, leave a 5-star review on your podcast app of choice, and recommend the Language on the Move podcast and our partner the New Books Network to your students, colleagues, and friends. Till next time!