Parental Plurilingual Capital in a Monolingual Context: Investigating Strengths to Support Young Children in Early Childhood Settings

Title
Parental Plurilingual Capital in a Monolingual Context: Investigating Strengths to Support Young Children in Early Childhood Settings
Publication Date
2017
Author(s)
Sims, Margaret
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4686-4245
Email: msims7@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:msims7
Ellis, Elizabeth M
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7936-7651
Email: eellis4@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:eellis4
Knox, Vicki
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Place of publication
Netherlands
DOI
10.1007/s10643-016-0826-6
UNE publication id
une:22479
Abstract
Parents who are plurilingual have a portfolio of assets they can use to support the language development of their children. This portfolio of assets is positioned as a strength that parents bring into their partnership with early childhood educators. However, not all parents who are plurilingual have the same assets in their language portfolios. Our study, using case studies of parents who have multiple languages and a desire to raise their children with more than one language, demonstrates that previous parental experiences with multiple languages, and intra-familial support for multiple languages combine to impact on parental language strengths and the expectations parents have of early childhood professionals. To build effective partnerships with parents, early childhood professionals need to understand the assets in parental language portfolios.Parents who are plurilingual have a portfolio of assets they can use to support the language development of their children. This portfolio of assets is positioned as a strength that parents bring into their partnership with early childhood educators. However, not all parents who are plurilingual have the same assets in their language portfolios. Our study, using case studies of parents who have multiple languages and a desire to raise their children with more than one language, demonstrates that previous parental experiences with multiple languages, and intra-familial support for multiple languages combine to impact on parental language strengths and the expectations parents have of early childhood professionals. To build effective partnerships with parents, early childhood professionals need to understand the assets in parental language portfolios.
Link
Citation
Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(6), p. 777-787
ISSN
1082-3301
1573-1707
Start page
777
End page
787

Files:

NameSizeformatDescriptionLink
administrative/MODS.xml 5.921 KB MODS.xml View document
closedpublished/SOURCE01.pdf 713.56 KB application/pdf publisher version (hidden) View document
open/ParentalSimsEllisKnox2017JournalArticlePostPeerReview.pdf 819.324 KB application/pdf Open access version View document