Parents’ Investment in a French-English Dual Language Immersion Program in the United States

ABSTRACT

Drawing upon Darvin and Norton’s framework of investment, this article explores the multiple factors underlying parents’ commitment to bilingual education. I use open-ended responses on a survey to report on the motivations and experiences of parents who have enrolled their child in a French-English dual language immersion program. Findings indicate how parents’ investment played out in issues surrounding identity, capital and ideology. Parents deemed it a success when their imagined identity for their child coincided with the child’s experience in the program, whereas challenges occurred when this identity conflicted with the child’s attitude. French linguistic capital was a salient issue, since opportunities to practice French outside of school remained limited, including for children from French-speaking households. Indeed, the major structural barrier was the hegemony of English. This discussion raises questions about the extent to which parents’ investment influences children’s experiences with bilingual education.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual
• capital
• identity
• investment
• language and ideology
• parents

Acknowledgments

I express my appreciation to the parents who served as participants in this project. I also would like to thank Dr. Patricia Carroll for her feedback on a previous version of the article.

Notes

1. “TK is the first year of a two-year kindergarten program that uses a modified kindergarten curriculum that is age and developmentally appropriate.” (California Department of Education, n.d.)

2. For two of the children, both parents filled out a separate survey.

3. Copies of the finalized coding scheme are available upon request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ève Ryan

Ève Ryan is Term Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Her recent research focuses on the lexical development of early-elementary students in a French-English dual immersion program.