The Intergenerational Transmission of Minority Languages Project Una Cunningham, University of Canterbury Jeanette King, University of Canterbury

Office of Ethnic Affairs report (2013) –Encouragement to speak English to children Long term personal and societal benefits (Cunningham 2011) Our aim – to produce information and disseminate to parents and professionals Motivation

Child languages in NZ

Role of location within NZ

ITML project Team of academics, thesis students and research assistants: Bilingual teen project Dissemination: Website, Facebook Future projects: Experiences of families with newborns Role of digital technology in bilingual children transitioning from preschool to primary school

Funding from NZILBB Commissioned census data 6 languages: Korean, Mandarin, Dutch, German, French, Spanish 6 native speaking interviewers (thesis student and RAs) Bilingual teen project

Census data Canterbury language % NZ child speakers# child speakers 1Japanese Persian Russian French Spanish German Dutch Korean Tagalog Afrikaans Mandarin7.4840

Each interview 5 sets of parent/s and year old children Asked about their beliefs, attitudes and practice in raising/being raised as a speaker of a minority language in Christchurch Interviews transcribed and translated Preliminary results on factors affecting parental decisions Bilingual teen project

“I’ve never made decisions on that” - Korean mother “When she was born, the natural language for me was French” “We always spoke French at home. Why? It never occurred to us to do otherwise.” “We had not really thought about it. We just spoke Dutch at home” “For me it is very important to pass on Dutch. You might say it is a family tradition” “It’s natural”

“What a good chance to let my child learn two languages” – Chinese mother “I think that being bilingual has enriched their lives. They have double opportunities to access culture, movies, music, literature, as well as humour“ – Spanish mother “We had both suffered [from not being bilingual] … when one is not bilingual at birth, it is harder” - French father Bilingual advantage

“Firstly, they are Chinese, which is an unchangeable fact. Secondly, whether they can speak Chinese or not, they are Chinese. Thirdly, if they cannot speak Chinese, they will feel ashamed in the future” – Chinese mother “If they cannot speak Chinese, the people in English world would consider them as ‘bananas’” – Chinese mother “Them getting to know their culture a bit better, their roots” – French father Culture & Heritage

“For them to be able to communicate with their family on holidays (in Spain). By speaking the language they can have much more fun. Because they can be part of what we are doing and be perfectly integrated.” “[With regards to] communicating with their grandparents, cousins, and all of that. I am conscious of the fact that they have to speak a minimum amount of French in order for that to happen naturally ” – French father “I still have a lot of family living in The Netherlands and I want them [the kids] to be able to talk with uncles … my brothers and sisters, with their uncles and aunts.” Communicating with wider family

“I was determined to teach my child to speak Chinese partly for my benefit, as it would facilitate our emotional communication and daily life communication” – Chinese mother “[Re professional advice on arrival in NZ] to continue to speak Dutch at home, day to day, as much as you can, because it takes ten years to transfer the emotional side of a language to a child” Communicating emotions

Facebook page: Growing up with Two Languages Website with information for parents and professionals – Also pamphlets, etc. – Talking to professional and community groups Dissemination project

Cunningham, U. (2011). Growing up with two languages. London: Routledge. Esser, H. (2006). “Migration, language and integration.” AKI Research Review 4. Office Of Ethnic Affairs. (2013). Language and integration in New Zealand. Retrieved from guageandIntegrationinNZ.pdf guageandIntegrationinNZ.pdf References