How community and family support bilingual language development: insights from bilingual Canadian families

ABSTRACT

While previous research has shown that language use in the home is an important factor in bilingual language development, little research has focused on how specific language strategies used by parents relate to bilingual children's language exposure and vocabulary development. Yet, for parents, this information has the potential to inform their day-to-day decisions about language use in their home. The present study aims to contribute to this understanding by applying a Bioecological Systems Model to understand how language use within the community and within the family influenced young children’s amount of language exposure and vocabulary abilities. A total of 51 French-English bilingual four-year-old Canadian children participated in the present study. Children’s exposure to each language was measured through parent reports, and their vocabulary was assessed in each language. Differences in community context were not a significant predictor of the amount of exposure or vocabulary abilities. Family language strategies predicted vocabulary scores in English but not French, whereas the amount of exposure predicted vocabulary scores in French but not English. These findings suggest that, in the preschool years, family language use strategies and amount of exposure impact vocabulary development and that their role differs based on context.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual
• children
• Family Language Policy
• French
• minoritised language

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Canadian Institutes for Health Research; Canadian institute of health research.