Early bilingualism: children of immigrants in an English-language childcare center

Abstract

In this study, language views and home language practice of sixteen immigrant parents were documented and related to the dual language behaviors of their young children (ages 1:09 to 3;06) who were enrolled in a Toronto English-language childcare center. De Houwer's (1999) model of early bilingualism was applied to the minority language context and external factors were used to explain the short-lived active bilingualism of the younger children and the passive bilingualism of the preschoolers. Presenting mothers and fathers with separate questionnaires proved to be a valuable methodological tool, which revealed similar language thinking but different home language practice. Immigrant mothers were more committed to their children's L1 development than were fathers, a finding, which supports and extends the parental gender difference noted in earlier work (Gleason, 2005;Lyon, 1991; Lyon & Ellis, 1999). Negative effects of early L2 exposure on minority language children's incomplete L1, reported in earlier studies, were confirmed. A concrete outcome of the present study was the creation mylanguage.ca, a website intended to help immigrant parents understand their children's dual language learning. Even though the study presents a somewhat bleak picture of the continuation of L1, it concludes on an optimistic note, encouraging immigrant fathers to join forces with their L1-committed spouses and to help provide a nurturing L1 environment for their young children.

Parent reading beliefs and parenting goals of Netherlands Antillean and Dutch mothers in the Netherlands

“…In a sample from diverse cultural minority backgrounds in Toronto, it has been found that both fathers and mothers report weak impact beliefs in both the minority and the dominant language (Chumak-Horbatsch, 2008). This means that in both the home and the community language, parents did not think of themselves as being effective language teachers of their children.…”

“…This means that in both the home and the community language, parents did not think of themselves as being effective language teachers of their children. However, the strategies they adopt to teach language to their children are not in line with this belief, because they do make efforts to teach language to their children (Chumak-Horbatsch, 2008). Torr (2008) investigated the beliefs of Indigenous Australian mothers in Australia, compared to Anglo-Australian mothers.…”

Full Issue

“…This involvement may include parents making their voices heard at public and heritage schools, participating in heritage language programs, visiting relatives in their country of origin, providing resources at home, talking to children in a heritage language, and having friends who speak the heritage language (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Bernhard, & Freire, 2001;Shin, 2005). On the other hand, Chumak-Horbatsch (2008) argues that too-early second language exposure might reduce the effectiveness of first and second language learning for young ELLs.…”

“…She felt that trying to preserve her son's Chinese was selfish because she thought it inevitably delayed his exposure to English and resulted in an inability to communicate with the outside world. In addition, more mothers than fathers felt that exposure to two languages was confusing to their children (Chumak-Horbatsch, 2008). For example, one mother said: "I am concerned that this can be pressure for her.…”

Parents’ Impact Belief in Raising Bilingual and Biliterate Children in Japan

“…The lack of impact belief is not necessarily culture-related. Migrant parents from China, Turkey, Iran, and Serbia accepted with resignation that they had minimal control over their children's minority language development after assessing the societal dominance of English in Canada and their children's extended exposure to English in daycare (Chumak-Horbatsch, 2008).…”