Term
2006
Capstone
Restricted Access Thesis
Degree Name
MAESL
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the discourse strategies used by bilingual Spanish/English parents who have a 2- to 3-year old child. Two questions are investigated: First, what type of discourse strategy will the parent use in response to the child when the child speaks in the parent's L2? Second, what language will the child continue to use? Five bilingual families participated for a total of 15 individuals all five children are male. Methodological triangulation was demonstrated through two parent questionnaires, one observation per each parent-child day and one interview of each parent. When parents keep a consistent language separation, children have minimal mixed-language utterances, and choose their language according to their interlocutor. Parents and educators will be able to take the results of this study to further their knowledge of bilingualism as well as understand how to better provide a rich linguistic environment for children.
Recommended Citation
De Samudio, Angela Dorn, "Selected factors determining language choice in young bilingual children" (2006). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations. 327.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_all/327