Migrants, bilingualism & parental involvement

Plurilingual education portal

Subject classification: this is an education resource.

Type classification: this resource is a course.

Initial activity

Watch the following videos and analyze the different language practices in relation to the diversity of languages spoken in them.

When your toddler speaks two different languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66iY3UzC878
Tips for Raising Multilingual Kids – Teaching 4 Languages to our Multicultural Children: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIOpW-niwb0

After this first activity, watch the following video and give an example of strategies for managing the languages present in the family environment. If you know of or can think of any others, feel free to add them.

Marie Rose Moro: Switching between languages: the case of migrant children

Objectives

By the end of this section, you should be able to...

Define the role of parental involvement in supporting children’s bilingualism/plurilingualism;
Understand the role of family involvement in the intergenerational transmission of the heritage language;
Identify different ways of positively managing plurilingualism within the family.

Keywords

migrants; language of origin; bilingualism; plurilingualism; intergenerational transmission of languages; family language policies; plurilingual education

Introduction

Family mobility, whether forced or not, leads to situations in which families must implicitly or explicitly define their family language policies. Family language policies refer more specifically to explicit and implicit language policies and practices at home (Curdt-Christiansen, 2018), but we will refer to family language policies that go beyond the domestic context to describe more holistic practices used by families to defend their family languages.

The need for language management is even more pressing when children are born, raising the question of whether or not to pass on the language of origin. In families where the parents speak two different languages of origin, or in cases of family breakdown due to mobility (e.g., divorce or death of one of the spouses), the choice of which languages to speak at home and pass on becomes even more pressing.

In this plurilingual family setting, there is also the question of language management at school, in family language interactions, and the place given to it. This place may be in opposition to the languages of origin, or complementary to them, reflecting parental involvement in relation to the plurilingual reality of the family.

The choice of school and foreign languages to study (or not), as well as the demand for native language courses in formal or informal contexts, are another sign of families' willingness to get involved in their children's language education.

In this section of Wikiversity, we will analyze how families are involved in the linguistic (and multilingual) education of their children, particularly by seeking formal and/or informal opportunities to transmit the language of origin. This parental involvement can promote the child's bi/plurilingual development, in a holistic approach that also integrates the language(s) of the school.

Parental involvement in the bilingual development of children

We refer to the language of origin (also known as the family language) as the language that is transmitted in situations of mobility/migration, especially in the family environment, in a sociolinguistic context where it is a minority language. This language is normally combined with other languages to form the plurilingual repertoire of children. These other languages include the majority language(s) (often the languages of schooling), the languages of the curriculum, and other languages in circulation with social uses. Parents and families can be involved, directly or indirectly, not only in the transmission of family languages, but also in the learning and use of majority and school languages, i.e., in this related dual investment.

Sometimes, parents, for fear of stigmatizing their children or to accept the advice of schools, which still tend to promote a monolingual ideal, choose not to pass on their native language to their children. Is it not true that many families continue to hear well-intentioned advice from school officials, such as “it is better to speak the language of the school at home” or “your child is still a little behind in terms of expression, this must be because he or she speaks another language at home”?

However, when parents commit to passing on their L1, they can do so implicitly or explicitly, but passionately (Gkaintartzi et al., 2014). More specifically, parental involvement means that families, especially those with a migrant background, are resources with their “funds of knowledge” (Vélez-Ibáñez & Greenberg, 1992) and should not be viewed from a “deficit-oriented” perspective, but from a perspective of proactive engagement. Parental involvement is traditionally sought in terms of school-family collaboration (Arias, 2017; Epstein, 2021; Krüger & Thamin, 2021). However, the involvement of parents and families in the transmission of the language of origin goes far beyond this relationship with the school as a formal educational institution.

We will now illustrate this complexity of family engagement by giving examples of family involvement in informal and formal contexts of language transmission.

Family engagement in the informal transmission of family/heritage languages

Families can informally support the bilingual and plurilingual development of their children through various everyday practices, which are situated and social literacy practices. For example, by adopting explicit family language policies such as the OPOL (one parent, one language) method or separating the language spoken at home from the language spoken in the community, or by establishing implicit rules that encourage the use of languages of origin at home, particularly in literacy practices. Regular reading in different languages, even in a playful way, helps to strengthen language skills. Participating in playgroups or social activities where children interact with other children in their native language provides natural opportunities for practice (Costa Wätzold & Melo-Pfeifer, 2024). Similarly, involvement in religious or community groups can encourage the use of these languages in a meaningful cultural setting (Souza, 2016). Initiatives such as the “mala de herança,” containing objects, books, or recordings in the family language, help maintain an emotional connection to the heritage language and culture (Costa Wätzold & Melo-Pfeifer, 2024). By helping their children with schoolwork, translating or explaining content in the heritage language (Costa Wätzold & Melo-Pfeifer, 2024), parents value this language as a cognitive tool. Finally, maintaining intergenerational family ties through frequent contact with grandparents, the members most often cited in the literature, in the country of origin (Melo-Pfeifer, 2015) reinforces the authentic use of the language of origin in emotional and everyday contexts.

Family involvement in the formal transmission of family languages

Families can make a more formal commitment to supporting their children's bilingual or plurilingual development, in particular by seeking out educational opportunities that incorporate the language or languages of origin. This may involve choosing bilingual or international schools where the language of origin is included in the official curriculum, either as a language of instruction or as a school subject.

Another formal strategy is to enroll children in extracurricular courses in their heritage language, offered outside of regular school hours. These courses may be organized by migrant associations, parent groups, or cultural institutions, often on weekends, and allow children to develop their language skills in a structured setting while strengthening their cultural ties to their community of origin.

Other forms of family involvement may include volunteering at school, working in school management groups, or even crowdsourcing for the school, particularly to support language programs (Arias, 2017). The typology of possible partnerships between schools and families, presented by Epstein (2001), ranges from parenting support, communication, volunteering, home learning, decision-making, and community collaboration. When it comes to school-family collaboration, a dynamic process also known as “co-education” (Krüger & Thamin, 2021), family involvement goes beyond responding to school requests (a “top-down” process) to include, above all, working to meet family requests (a “bottom-up” process). In this sense, “schools will actively engage parents and families in a partnership that supports the academic work of children at home and shared educational decision making at school” (Arias, 2017, p. 284). Among these educational decisions, we can include the use of languages and the promotion of languages of origin.

These approaches demonstrate a conscious and sustained parental investment in maintaining and promoting family plurilingualism, even in the face of social and institutional challenges and barriers (Zaidi et al., 2021). It should be noted that these different illustrations are not part of an approach that opposes school languages, but more often than not are associated with them, in the spirit of overall appropriation. This simultaneous promotion of school languages and heritage languages within the family context is a crucial issue in plurilingual education. It promotes the cognitive development of learners and the preservation of their cultural identity, while opening up social and professional opportunities in their new environment.

Take-away messages

Parental involvement is essential for the bilingual and plurilingual development of children.
Families can develop tacit or explicit strategies for the bilingual and plurilingual development of children by adopting family language policies.
Families can engage in formal and informal efforts to transmit the language of origin across generations, which directly contributes to the bilingual and plurilingual education of children, while promoting the learning and use of school languages.
School-family collaboration (sometimes referred to as co-education) is essential for concerted work on children's bilingual and plurilingual development.

Self-assessment

References

Arias, M. B. (2017). Parent and community involvement in bilingual and multilingual education. In W. Wright, S. Boun & O. García (Eds.), The handbook of bilingual and multilingual education (pp. 282-298). Wiley Blackwell.

Costa Wätzold, J. & Melo-Pfeifer, S. (2024). Constructing bilingual input safe spaces at home: rethinking exposure to language from a multilingual and multisite perspective on literacy practices. Frontiers in Language Sciences, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/flang.2024.1416398

Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2018). Family Language Policy. In J. W. Tollefson & M. Pérez-Milans (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Language Policy and Planning. Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190458898.013.21

Epstein, J. (2001). School, family and community partnership. Westview.

Gkaintartzi, A., Chatzidaki, A., & Tsokalidou, R. (2014). Albanian Parents and the Greek Educational Context: Who is Willing to Fight for the Home Language?. International Multilingual Research Journal, 8(4), 291–308. Doi: 10.1080/19313152.2014.953004.

Krüger, A.-B., & Thamin, N. (2021). Inclusion strategies for emergent bilingual pupils in pre-school in France: The importance of the home-school relationship. In L. Mary, A.-B. Krüger & A. Young (Eds.), Migration, multilingualism and education. Critical perspectives on inclusion (pp. 222–240). Multilingual Matters.

Melo-Pfeifer, S. (2015). The role of the family in Heritage Language use and learning: impact on heritage language policies. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18/1, (26-44). DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2013.868400.

Melo-Pfeifer, S., Krüger, A.-B., & Lasne, A. (2024). What’s language(s) got to do with it? Educators and newcomer refugee families’ perspectives on home–school collaboration: A case study in a primary school in Germany. Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices, 5(1), 69-90.

Souza, A. (2016). Português como língua de herança em Londres: Recortes em casa, na igreja e na escola. Pontes.

Vélez-Ibáñez, C.G., & Greenberg, J.B. (1992). Formation and transformation of funds of knowledge among U.S. Mexican households. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 23(4), 313-335.

Zaidi, R, Oliver, Ch., Strong, T., & Alwarraq, H. (2021). Behind Successful Refugee Parental Engagement: The Barriers and Challenges. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 44.4: 907–937.

Credits

This resource has been created by Projet PEP (discuss • contribs) (Erasmus+ project, co-financed by the European Commission) :

Thierry Gaillat (Université de La Réunion)
Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer (Universität Hamburg)

Portal: Plurilingual education

	A. Through playful reading in the home language and the majority language
	B. By playing with groups of children who have the same linguistic repertoire
	C. Through regular contact with family members in the country of origin
	D. All of the above