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The development of bilingualism in early childhood: Chinese parents’ attitudes, beliefs and family practice Du, Ting
Abstract
An exploratory study was conducted to examine what Chinese immigrant parents have thought and done in regard to their children’s bilingual development. An interview schedule was used to collect data from a total of 15 parents who have been selected from eight preschool and daycare settings in Vancouver. The multiple case study approach was used for analysing the results. The parents attached greater importance to or had higher expectations for their children’s speaking skills in Chinese (L 1) than their reading and writing skills in Li. Their motives for wishing their children to retain Li were given in the following order: personal/social motives, symbolic motives, intellectual motives, and instrumental motives. All of the parents ranked English (L2) learning for their children in all language skills very important. The instrumental motive played the most important role. All parents reported that there was a tendency for their children to use more and more L2 at home once they were in daycare. Upon this change, some parents responded to their children in L2 at home. It seems that these parents’ reactions depended on their children’s language proficiency in Li and L2. When their children’s Li was still good or their L2 was average or poor, these parents tended to take no action in helping their children retain Li and they hoped that their children would first learn L2 well. In addition, most parents reported that they had made an effort to help their children maintain Li. However, most of them met with difficulties in doing so. The main factor causing such difficulty was the English-speaking social environment. Furthermore, most parents perceived that the family environment was the main source for their children to learn Li. As for L2 learning, they thought that their children could learn it naturally from many sources such as schools, friends and TV. Though not very conclusive, there was an indication in this study that the presence of monolingual grandparents and home country visits were two factors in helping children maintain Li.
Item Metadata
Title |
The development of bilingualism in early childhood: Chinese parents’ attitudes, beliefs and family practice
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
1994
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Description |
An exploratory study was conducted to examine what Chinese immigrant parents have
thought and done in regard to their children’s bilingual development. An interview schedule
was used to collect data from a total of 15 parents who have been selected from eight
preschool and daycare settings in Vancouver. The multiple case study approach was used for
analysing the results. The parents attached greater importance to or had higher expectations
for their children’s speaking skills in Chinese (L 1) than their reading and writing skills in Li.
Their motives for wishing their children to retain Li were given in the following order:
personal/social motives, symbolic motives, intellectual motives, and instrumental motives. All
of the parents ranked English (L2) learning for their children in all language skills very
important. The instrumental motive played the most important role. All parents reported that
there was a tendency for their children to use more and more L2 at home once they were in
daycare. Upon this change, some parents responded to their children in L2 at home. It seems
that these parents’ reactions depended on their children’s language proficiency in Li and L2.
When their children’s Li was still good or their L2 was average or poor, these parents tended
to take no action in helping their children retain Li and they hoped that their children would
first learn L2 well. In addition, most parents reported that they had made an effort to help
their children maintain Li. However, most of them met with difficulties in doing so. The main
factor causing such difficulty was the English-speaking social environment. Furthermore,
most parents perceived that the family environment was the main source for their children to
learn Li. As for L2 learning, they thought that their children could learn it naturally from
many sources such as schools, friends and TV. Though not very conclusive, there was an
indication in this study that the presence of monolingual grandparents and home country
visits were two factors in helping children maintain Li.
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Extent |
2907903 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-02-26
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0054721
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
1994-05
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.