B-3 Parental Motivation for Providing Monolingual Children with a Second Language Acquisition Experience in a Monolingual Context

Buller Hall 149

This qualitative study seeks to find motivating factors for parental engagement in providing children with a second language acquisition experience in a monolingual context. Bilingualism and multilingualism have been largely explored in countries where there are languages in contact. Very few studies have investigated themes of raising bilingual children in monolingual countries unknown for any commitment to (at least) bilingualism let alone multilingualism. Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America provide a good model to study this topic given the vast majority of them share borders with other Spanish speaking countries. As opposed to other continents where bordering countries speak different languages. Although 40% of the Argentinean population claims to have some degree of English proficiency, Argentina is a monolingual country. The question driving this work stemmed from the peculiarity of parental motivation in supporting bilingualism or multilingualism in children in a largely monolingual context when in most cases the parents’ first language is Spanish. The families selected qualified to participate in the study on the basis of intentionality in raising bilingual or multilingual children. The majority of the families interviewed homeschool their children and conduct most of the academic work in a language or languages other than Spanish. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven parents. Preliminary analysis shows that parents ground their motivation in reasons related to occupation, career options, and the opportunity to travel without assistance. Minimal references to transcultural dispositions or empathy were made.