Presented by Ulrike C Glinzner Flinders University, SA PARENTS AS TEACHERS: TEACHING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE FOR HOME LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AFMLTA National Conference 2011

Content Background: Parent involvement in ethnic schools Literature Review The study Participants Findings Summary

“I have friends who do not speak to their children in the minority language but send them to language School on Sunday mornings hoping 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: 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 TypeNumber of familiesDescription 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 1German is generally not spoken in the home 5One parent speaks sometimes German in the home to the child 1Both parents speak sometimes German in the home to the child 1One parent speaks always German to the child

Findings: Parents’ home involvement forms 1. Parent-child activities 2. Parents’ regulating and motivating strategies 3. Providing a stimulating linguistic environment

Findings: Home involvement - Parent-child activities Reading books Translating games Using tapes Rehearsing Scaffolding Correcting grammar Reinforcing what has been learnt at school Word games Little projects Speaking: always Mixing languages Speaking in certain situations Labelling items German homework Writing 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 rewards Encouragement Modelling Monitoring school work Rules No force Tricking child into German Reminding child Making it fun Relating to child’s interests Regulating amount of language input Persistence Starting language early Findings: Home involvement - Parents’ 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 Germany Sending child to German school Friends, others Listening to German in the car Computer games Media from the Internet Media from the local library DVDs, CDs Sharing resources with other families Searching for resources Books Findings: Home involvement - Providing 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 strategy and 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 Summary

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 Summary

Thank you! Questions?

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