Examining the Relationship Between Biculturalism and Language Confusions: Case Series of Children of Southeast Asian Immigrant Spouses

• In Event: Roundtable Session 66
  In Roundtable Session: The Transnational Nature of Schooling: Redefining Global in Schooling Contexts

Abstract

This project attempts to investigate the controversial results of bilingualism in the bicultural families in Taiwan from a contextual perspective and examines language powers, language events, and the potential causes of language delay by observing two groups of the bicultural children from families of Southeast Asian immigrant wives. The participating children in this study were divided into two groups, children with or without language delay. The theoretical frameworks used are the ideological model of literacy (Street, 1995 & 1984) and literacy events (Heath, 1986, 1983 & 1982). Findings in this project indicate that language delay of the bicultural children seems to be more possibly caused by the insufficient language events and conflicted literacy paradigms between mothers and schools.

Authors

• Sa-Hui Fan, National Taichung University of Education

• Hao-Pai Ni, Da Chien General Hospital