Families and Bilingualism

     Parents play a large role in the language development of their children as they also play a large role in development of a second language. In recent years it has been suggested that bilingualism has been on an  "explosive demand". Education programs are being supported by both majority and minority language children to learn two languages. There is been an increase in the purchasing of programs such online programs, CD's, videos, and flash books that are aimed towards children. Second language learning is supported by middle class families as gymnastics or tee ball would be. There is also a desire for minority speakers to retain their first language while learning the H-language. I find this to be a very good thing, however there are many difficulties in obtaining these goals. In King and Fogle's study they examined 24 families to better understand the multitudes of this. 
     I found it interesting that "mothers participating in the
project changed their conceptions of what it meant to be a ‘good mother'....". They changed their views to better suit the program. Also, minority mothers were "vulnerable to unrelenting public advice and recommendations, and concomitant little recognition of the (invisible) work that bilingual parenting entailed, often resulting in maternal guilt, stress and personal trauma." It was also confessed in this article that 95% of the programs lack the credibility in their areas of suggestions.
     Most of the parents saw bilingualism as a benefit to their children though also voiced their concerns in the interviews such as confusion of languages and the difficulty of acquiring both languages at a young age. There were constants that were also mentioned in the interview such as " (1) the
popular press and parenting advice literature, (2) other bilingual families, particularly those of their extended family and (3) their personal experiences with language learning." However the ways in which these were executed were different. I found this interesting. This could be because their sources form where parents get the ideas about bilingualism are the same, however their cultural background may call for the differences in how bilingualism is preformed. There were negative statements that were let with positive disclaimers such as "When I was little..." or "I know that studies show...". Parents are not uncritical reviews, especially when it comes to their children. It was also stated that these vague openers may be used because parents are unaware that there are may bilingual homes that actively and successfully use both languages. "...many parents were unaware of how frequently children raised in
bilingual homes become active users of only one language." Most of all I was excited to see that multilingualism is being promoted and supported in families and communities.