Perceived effectiveness of language acquisition in the process of multilingual upbringing by parents of different nationalities

ABSTRACT

This article examines the perceived effectiveness of multilingual upbringing strategies and ways of communication adopted by families where the parents are of two different nationalities. The theoretical introduction presents an overview of the most important issues related to the linguistic development in bi-/multilingual children, debunking common myths and misconceptions surrounding the notions of bi-/multilingualism. The empirical part analyses the results of a survey conducted among parents who raise their children multilingually, looking at the strategies of communication adopted, the perceived effectiveness thereof, and whether the respondents would have changed or improved anything if they had been given a ‘second chance’. The results show that the most frequently implemented method is the one parent-one language approach, whose usefulness the majority assessed positively. Other practical conclusions concerning multilingual upbringing are also drawn.

KEYWORDS:

• Multilingual upbringing
• bilingual acquisition
• childhood bilingualism
• communication strategies
• bi/multinational families
• childhood bi/multilingualism
• parental perspectives
• parents of bilingual children

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Corrigendum

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the mothers who took their time to fill out the questionnaires, and the anonymous reviewers who provided helpful and exhaustive commentary. All the usual disclaimers apply.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Michał B. Paradowski is an assistant professor at the Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw, and a visiting scholar at the Department of Second Language Studies, Indiana University Bloomington. His publications number over 60, focusing mainly on issues related to second and third language acquisition, cross-linguistic influence, foreign language instruction, bi- and multilingualism, psycholinguistics, and complexity science. His recent edited volumes are Teaching Languages off the Beaten Track (2014) and Productive Foreign Language Skills for an Intercultural World (2015).

Aleksandra Bator obtained her Bachelor’s degree from the Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw. As part of her teacher training she completed an internship in a bilingual kindergarten, where she was working with children aged three to five, while during her gap year she worked as a tutor to a three-and-a-half-year-old English boy, introducing him to French as a second language. She is currently a graduate student at the Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication, Birkbeck, University of London. Her interests concentrate around multilingual upbringing and education.

ORCiD

Michał B. Paradowski http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0710-3075