Parents' Perceptions of Bilingualism: The Role of Language Experience and Local Language Diversity

• In Event: Bilingualism in the United States: Exploring Linguistic and Social Ecologies Across Home, School, and Out-of-School Contexts

Abstract

Purpose
Despite a growing body of literature showing positive effects of bilingualism on cognition, socio-emotional well-being, and economic opportunity, bilingual experience is often seen as enriching for majority language speakers but problematic for those from minority language backgrounds (Ruiz, 1984; Skutnabb-Kangas, 1981). Previous studies have explored parent attitudes towards the transmission of minority languages (Mancilla-Martínez & Lesaux, 2014; Velázquez, 2009) and teachers’ beliefs about linguistic diversity (Byrnes & Kiger, 1994; Sung & Akhtar, 2017), but none have measured perceptions of the value of bilingualism among a general population of parents, particularly in the U.S. The current study aims to fill this gap and explore the relationship between perceptions, demographic background and language practices by asking 1) How do parents of toddlers perceive the value of bilingualism, and how does this vary by parents’ language background and local language diversity? and 2) Are parents’ perceptions predictive of their engagement in language practices that promote bilingual development?

Theoretical Framework
Attitudes towards bilingualism have been shown to be distinct from attitudes towards specific languages (Baker, 1992), yet little is known about how language background and social context contribute to beliefs about the value of bilingualism. Furthermore, multiple theories of bilingual language acquisition have highlighted the role of parental attitudes and beliefs in explaining home language practices (De Houwer, 1999; Hamers & Blanc, 1982), but this relationship has not been tested empirically.

Methods and Data Sources
We used data from an online survey with a linguistically diverse sample of parents of toddlers (n=176) resembling the U.S. census population in terms of education, geographic region and race. The 25-minute survey included attitude scales on the value of bilingualism generally and for one’s child specifically, and questions about the language and social background of the parent and focal child. Local language diversity was operationalized as the proportion of the population who spoke a non-English language at home according to census data in the participant’s residing zip code.

Results
After establishing the internal reliability of the two attitude scales (Cronbach’s alpha=.80 and .89), a linear combination of each was used as dependent variables to examine relationships between perceptions, parent characteristics, and local language diversity. Average scores fell between “somewhat agree” and “agree,” suggesting that the typical parent viewed speaking multiple languages positively. We found moderate, positive, statistically significant associations between perceptions of bilingualism, gender, language background, and local language diversity (rs = .22 - .41, ps <.05), with women who spoke more than one language and lived in a linguistically diverse area most likely to value bilingualism. Perceptions were also significantly positively correlated with the proportion of the non-English language that bilingual parents used with their toddler (r=.33, p<.001), and the frequency of engaging in literacy activities in the non-English language (r=.29, p<.001).

Significance
Our findings contribute to the existing literature by examining parents’ perceptions of bilingualism with a large heterogeneous sample and lay the groundwork for further development of this instrument for use with larger samples both online and in lab- and school-based studies.

Authors

• Sarah Huckabay Surrain, Harvard University

• Gigi Luk, Harvard Graduate School of Education