Presented by

Ulrike C GlinznerFlinders University, SA

ulrike.glinzner@flinders.edu.au

PARENTS AS TEACHERS: TEACHING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE FOR HOME LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE

AFMLTA National Conference 2011

ContentContent

Background: Parent involvement in ethnic schools

Literature ReviewThe studyParticipantsFindingsSummary

“I have friends who do not speak to their children in the minority languagebut send them to language School on

Sunday morningshoping that this will be sufficient. … I

wasn’t too impressed with the results.”

(“A Reader’s Success Story”, 2008, 3, p. 3)

From a parent’s perspective

Literature Review: Literature Review: What is parent involvement?What is parent involvement?

The “dedication of resources by the parent to the child within a given domain” (Grolnick, Benjet, Kurowski and Apostoleris, 1997, p. 538).

Figure 1: Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s (2005) revised model (Walker, Wilkins, Dallaire, Sandler and Hoover-Dempsey, 2005 in Green et al, 2007).

Literature review

Positive effects of parental involvement on children’s schooling (Gonzalez-DeHass, Willems and Holbein, 2005; Xuesong, 2006)

Importance of maintaining community languages (Döpke, 1996; Clyne, 1991; Clyne and Kipp, 1997; Pauwels, 2005)

Child gets eventually more linguistic input from the lingua franca (Döpke, 1996)

Persistence and consistency in using the language and parental teaching techniques have a crucial impact on successful language maintenance (Pauwels, 2005)

Parental involvement is important for children’s language learning (Xuesong, 2006)

How parental involvement is realised in families is extremely variable (Clark, 2000; Xuesong, 2006)

Literature review

The study

Study purpose: to explore influences on parents’ home

involvement in children’s German language learning

develop an understanding of participants’ home involvement

Method: Multiple instrumental case study design Instruments: Semi-structured Interviews Qualitative data analysis: content analysis

Participants

Both parents in10 families

eight families were mixed marriages (six of them between a German and an English participant)

two families English dominant

well educated - all but two parents completed tertiary studies. Mothers slightly better educated than fathers

families had two children with a mean age of seven years

Participants’ language practice in the

home

Type Number of families Description

Both parents native English speakers

1 One parent speaks sometimes German in the home to the child

1 Both parents speak sometimes German to the child

One parent is a native speaker of German

1 German is generally not spoken in the home

5 One parent speaks sometimes German in the home to the child

1 Both parents speak sometimes German in the home to the child

1 One parent speaks always German to the child

Findings: Parents’ home involvement Findings: Parents’ home involvement formsforms

1. Parent-child activities2. Parents’ regulating and

motivating strategies3. Providing a stimulating linguistic

environment

Findings: Home involvement - Parent-child Findings: Home involvement - Parent-child activitiesactivities

Reading booksTranslating gamesUsing tapesRehearsingScaffoldingCorrecting grammarReinforcing what has been learnt at school

Word gamesLittle projectsSpeaking: alwaysMixing languagesSpeaking in certain situations Labelling itemsGerman homeworkWriting activities

“During morning and evening routines I speak German to her. “ “So lots and lots of little things (…) speak mostly German during game”“Support him by reminding him if there’s homework or by re-enforcing, going over some of the words”“Sometimes we read part of that [book]. But I would think that probably the main part is that sometimes I talk to him in Swiss or German”

Offering rewardsEncouragementModelling Monitoring school workRulesNo forceTricking child into German

Reminding child Making it funRelating to child’s interestsRegulating amount of language inputPersistence Starting language early

Findings: Home involvement -Findings: Home involvement -Parents’ regulating and motivating strategiesParents’ regulating and motivating strategies

“Look at his work that he brings home, look at his assignments”“We go every Saturday to German school”“Reading, and German movies and song, where they don’t have a choice”

Going to GermanySending child to German schoolFriends, othersListening to German in the carComputer gamesMedia from the Internet

Media from the local libraryDVDs, CDsSharing resources with other familiesSearching for resources Books

Findings: Home involvement -Findings: Home involvement -Providing a stimulating linguistic environmentProviding a stimulating linguistic environment

“Not a lot is reinforced at home…. we take them to Germany”“Myself through videos, books and German internet sites. I sometimes do [speak]. ““Very little one-to-one contact to speak German, (…) Significant amount of money spent buying books, CDs and DVDs (…) we then 'make' them read/listen-to/watch”“Sometimes I sit down watching with them while I’m doing other things”

Findings: Parents’ main involvement strategyFindings: Parents’ main involvement strategyand time spentand time spent

All but four parents were actively involved in their children’s learning of a community language

Most parents reported on all three involvement forms, one main involvement strategy

1. ‘Mainly conversing in German with the child’,2. ‘A combination of speaking and other parent –

child activities’,3. ‘Regulative strategies’ 4. ‘The provision of German resources’. 5. ‘A more passive involvement’Strategies including speech versus alternative

support

SummarySummary

For three types of diverse involvement strategies an association with the amount or lack of time used

More male English speakers supported by searching for resources, encouraging the use of German media; two to four hours per week

All but one German native speaker viewed speaking the target language with their child as their main form of involvement

An emotional attachment to the German language and culture determined whether and how often German was used to communicate with the child

SummarySummary

Thank you!Thank you!

Questions?

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ReferencesReferences