Multilingualism and Malleability of Abilities: Uncovering Parental Factors Supporting Second Language Acquisition in Early Childhood

• In Event: Bilingualism - early childhood

Abstract

Why do some parents choose to raise their children bilingual and others don’t? Further, why do some parents engage in activities using the second language more than others? Muenks et al. (2015) found a relationship between parents’ beliefs about the fixedness/malleability of their children’s abilities and their engagement in reading practices at home. We extended this work to second language acquisition through a mixed-methods study consisting of an online questionnaire and interview with parents of children ages 0 to 8 across the USA. Parents (n = 193) filled out a questionnaire that included the Parental Beliefs about Fixedness (PBAF) scale for children’s verbal and math abilities, Dweck’s theories of intelligence scale, as well as demographic and language-related questions, such as whether their child is learning a second language and how often they read to their child. To explore these questions further, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a sub-sample of parents (n = 20).
Preliminary analysis of the questionnaire responses suggests that among parents whose children speak an L2, controlling for education and income, those who think their child’s verbal abilities are less fixed are more likely to report that their child listens to music (0.33 difference in log odds, n.s.) or is read to in the second language (1.14 difference in log odds, p<0.05) than parents who believe their children’s verbal abilities are more fixed. Additionally, parents whose child is learning an L2 are more likely to think reading in the L2 (0.43, p<0.001) or listening to music in the L2 (0.34, p<0.05) helps a child learn it than parents of monolingual children, even when controlling for income and education.
Data from our questionnaire suggests that, on average, parents believe their child’s verbal abilities are less fixed than their math abilities (p<0.01) or general intelligence (p<0.10). Similarly, our first round of qualitative coding of interview data shows that although some parents believe some children are born with “a special knack” (innate talent) for certain activities, such as playing the piano or solving difficult Math problems, all parents believe it is possible for their child to learn a second language. Yet, most parents believe there is a certain age after which learning a second language becomes more difficult. All parents who were interviewed, including those who are themselves monolingual or are raising a monolingual child, view bilingualism as a desirable skill. Importantly, however, whether raising a monolingual child or an L2-speaking child, interviewed parents voiced a need for more resources to learn how they can support their child in learning a second language.
Taken together, results from preliminary analyses of our quantitative and qualitative data shed light on the interplay between parents’ beliefs about the fixedness of their children’s abilities and their language-related beliefs and practices. Our findings may inform interventions that aim to promote parental self-efficacy pertaining to children’s second language acquisition and development by underlining the malleability of children’s verbal abilities and highlighting the role parents - monolingual and bilingual - can play in their child’s second language acquisition.

Authors

• Sandra El Hadi, Harvard University
  Presenting Author

• Meredith L. Rowe, Harvard University