Immigrant parents’ and teachers’ views on bilingual preschool language policy

Abstract

It has been found that parents, searching for external control of a supporting sociolinguistic environment for L1 and L2 development, can plan several relevant strategies and implement them as a part of their family language policy. The choice of bilingual education serves as an important link in the practical realization of family language ideology. This paper aims to examine language policy and models in bilingual preschools from immigrant parents’ and bilingual teachers’ perspectives. The focus was on the following topics: (1) the parents’ views on the language policy of the bilingual preschool education, (2) the teachers’ reflections on their language policy and (3) the negotiation between parents’ and teachers’ views on bilingual preschool language policy. It was important to address both parents’ and teachers’ opinions in order to obtain a deeper understanding of parent–teacher interactions and negotiations of their views. The study was conducted in two bilingual Russian-Hebrew speaking preschools in Israel. I applied methodological triangulation with a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The study revealed that questions regarding input in each language, ratio between L1 and L2, and changes of this ratio in different age groups are central concerns for both the pedagogical staff and parents.

Keywords:

• bilingual education
• family language ideology
• teachers’ language policy
• language ratio
• ‘First Language First’ approach

Notes

1. The names of the preschools have been changed.