Great Aunt Edna’s Vase: Metaphor Use in Working With Heritage Language Families

Abstract

This article explores the use of a particular metaphor—Great Aunt Edna’s Vase—as a means to facilitating multilingual families in contextualizing and engaging with complex emotional connections as linked to language, identity, and belonging. Building from the premise that language is linked to the construction of identity, but that individual family members will have different views and opinions on the heritage language within this context, this article highlights the use of metaphors in family work, before introducing the metaphor of Great Aunt Edna’s Vase and situating it in relevant literature around language, heritage, and identity. The concepts introduced add to the existing body of literature in addressing the growing need for work specifically aimed at multilingual families, in a globally ever-more-diverse society, highlighting the links between language and well-being, and making a contribution to the global knowledge necessary for practitioners and families to explore these links successfully.