Partnering With Parents to Promote Harmonious Bilingualism at Home

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Home Learning Environment (Table 9)

Abstract

This mixed method study uses multiple data sources to explore ways that Chinese immigrant families in Quebec (Canada) foster harmonious bilingualism (De Houwer, 2020) in their homes. Following observations of spontaneous parent-child interactions during storybook reading, we offered a workshop to parents aimed at furthering their use of interactive reading strategies to support their child’s language development. In this paper we report on the observational data and on focus group interviews with parents from 29 families (children ages 3-6 years). Drawing on parents’ reading styles and perspectives on how to best support children’s language development, we will recommend effective and sustainable practices to support harmonious bilingualism at home.

Authors

• Wei Mao, Concordia University - Montreal

• Diane Pesco, Concordia University - Montreal