Parental Reasoning for Child Enrollment in Armenian Dual-Language Immersion Programs in Los Angeles

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: Fostering Multilingualism and Empowered Identities Within Contexts of English Hegemony

Abstract

As the biggest stakeholders in their child’s education, parents make dual language immersion programs effective and successful. This study explores the driving forces and motivating factors that lead parents from Armenian heritage to enroll their child in an Armenian Dual Language Immersion program (DLI), thus fostering their child’s heritage language. My findings show that parent involvement and family language policy play an important role in parents’ decisions. Language retention is especially critical for second and later generation immigrants, and as this immigration gap of Armenians in Los Angeles continues to close, it is crucial to find out how we can maintain heritage languages in the U.S. and not fall subject to linguistic assimilation that typically occur within three generations.

Authors

• Anahit Pogossian, University of California - Los Angeles

• Alison L. Bailey, University of California - Los Angeles