Critical Discourse Analysis on Parental Language Ideologies of Bilingual and Multilingual Child-Rearing and Language Education Using Facebook and Internet Forums
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. Language Attitudes and Language Ideologies
2.1.1. Language Attitudes and Ideologies in Real-Life Contexts
2.1.2. Language Attitudes and Ideologies in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC)
2.1.3. Language Attitudes and Ideologies among Parents on Social Media
2.2. Digital-Mediated Communications, and Genres on CMC
2.3. Theoretical Orientations
2.3.1. Critical Discourse Analysis
2.3.2. Values Analysis
- What are the overall characteristics of the data in terms of the online sites themselves, users’ posts, and comments on the four sites?
- What are the major topics that the posts and comments of the bilingual/multilingual Facebook groups and Internet forums are discussing? That is, what are the users who are raising bilingual and multilingual children using these Facebook groups to help them with? What are the particular questions and concerns regarding the use of multiple languages and bilingual/multilingual upbringing?
- Among the most frequently discussed topics of parents on the Facebook groups and Internet forums, what are the parents’ language ideologies regarding the use of multiple languages, and what are users of the groups saying specifically about the languages when analyzing metalinguistic discourses?
3. Method
3.1. Data Collection
3.1.1. Data Collection Sites
- Explicitly referred to as bilingualism and multilingualism in its description
- Explicit reference to more than one language in the family
- Public access of the groups and forum
- Posts and comments on the groups tend to stay on topic
3.1.2. Data Collection Method
4. Data Analysis
4.1. Overall Characteristics of the Data on the Four Online Sites
4.2. Topics of the Posts and Comments
4.3. Language Ideologies Expressed in the Language Uses
4.3.1. Recurrent Language Ideologies
4.3.2. Critical Discourse Analysis on Language Ideologies (Some Illustrative Posts and Comments)
Discourse 1: “Hi all! Have you ever heard people say that being bilingual makes you smarter?”.
Discourse 2: “I’m a mom of 2 and a French teacher/business owner. We’re Italian, but I went to Francophone schools all my life and believe that the more languages you speak, the more opportunities you will have in life! I’m happy and excited to be part of this multilingual family group and to contribute to it!”.
Discourse 3: “My baby is 8 months old and he’s not babbling yet. When we mentioned that to our nurse at the 8–9 month check-up, she was surprised but said it could be due to the fact that we speak different languages at home”.
Discourse 4: “From what I have read, there is a persistent stereotype among nurses, teachers, anyone whose field of training is not multiple language development, where they repeat pro-monolingual theories that were disproven decades ago...”.
Discourse 5: “Kids are amazing! I am also using the OPOL method (Italian mother and Spanish daddy living in UK) and it works great! My lo is almost 3.5 and can now speak a very good Italian. She use to mix up a lot (mainly Italian and english) but now he is doing great...the trick?”.
Discourse 6: “I want her to be able to read in ml as well but I wasn’t sure if I should wait for reading skills to be established in her ML before attempting to add ml. Our home ml is not supported in school so it will be down to me to build a foundation for her”.
Discourse 7: “It was a stressful process, unnecessarily. I’m glad they are out of the program. If there were other bilingual kids (peers) in the program with them or it was a real bilingual class, I would have loved it!”.
Discourse 8: “My point is that every child is different. It depends on what they want: children who’re only interested in communicating with their parents, like my daughter, will only speak their parents’ language until they want to communicate with someone else. Children who are only interested in communicating with kids their age, will speak whatever language those friends speak, etc…”.
Discourse 9: “I should really learn French. Ideally, she would speak French with her siblings and the au pair until she starts school. Then she will speak French at school as well. What you say makes sense. My son had many friends that favoured speaking French, so this benefited him in that he would often play in French with them. They now speak English as well depending who they are playing with”.
Discourse 10: “It all depends on what you want to achieve: if you want your daughter to speak only English to you, then all English is the way to go. If you think she won’t have enough French exposure, then allowing some extra French with you may help. The beauty of all this is that you can always make a change and start doing things differently, and your kids will adapt to this change too”.
Discourse 11: “My younger son (age 7) is currently learning to read in both languages at the same time. I even mix our lessons, doing a few activities in ml and then a few activities in ML”.
Discourse 12: “Reading in one language truly helped her when learning how to read in both German and English. Her teacher tells me that she’s above her reading level in English, and I can tell you that’s not because we do English reading at home. She’s transferring skills from one language to another, so teaching/learning reading in the mls has definitely been a great idea”.
Discourse 13: “…… and her family are from South Africa, and their first language is Afrikaans. They speak it to each other whenever they are together, even at family nights and parties where there are people who don’t understand it. They do make an effort to switch to English when non Afrikaans speakers are around”.
Discourse 14: “As they get older, they spend more and more time with their friends. Their minority language needs to be strong before then. The majority language will get there eventually. But having them struggle a bit more with the majority language means working harder at school, so you have to find a balance”.
5. Conclusions and Discussions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
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Discussion Topics Categories | Frequencies | Percentages | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Sharing Resources (books, papers, online lectures, language courses, etc.) | 59 | 32.96% |
2 | Language Transmission Strategies | 44 | 24.58% |
3 | Miscellaneous/Advertisements (inquiry to fill a research survey, research participants recruitment advertisements, other miscellaneous posts) | 35 | 19.55% |
4 | Seek/Sharing Opinions from the Environment | 16 | 8.94% |
5 | Schooling | 7 | 3.91% |
6 | Language Preference by the Child | 6 | 3.35% |
7 | Language Development Milestones (babbling) | 3 | 1.68% |
8 | Speech Delays | 3 | 1.68% |
9 | Language Mixing | 3 | 1.68% |
10 | Proficiency in Multiple Languages | 3 | 1.68% |
Language Ideologies | Number of Cases | |
---|---|---|
1. | Keeping languages separate (e.g., OPOL; Using different strategies when teaching different languages, such as using only one language for a while to see if that changes anything, then undergoing a six-month trial; Using the minority language at home approach; One language at home and a different one elsewhere; The time and place strategy; Developing a child’s different languages at different time points, e.g., their ml * needs to be strong before they get older and spend more and more time with their friends and at school) | 25 |
2. | Pro-monolingual ideologies (e.g., When children reach school age and are exposed to monolingual ideologies that favor the dominant language (i.e., English)) | 8 |
3. | Supporting bilingualism/multilingualism | 46 |
4. | Being bilingual is advantageous (e.g., Bilingualism is advantageous for cognitive ability; language is related to safety and identity—personal values) | 17 |
5. | Teaching multiple languages together (e.g., Dual language immersion; reading in one language helps the process of learning to read in the other language) | 10 |
6. | Maintaining heritage language and culture | 25 |
7. | Subscribing to a model of subtractive bilingualism | 3 |
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Qian, Y. Critical Discourse Analysis on Parental Language Ideologies of Bilingual and Multilingual Child-Rearing and Language Education Using Facebook and Internet Forums. Journal. Media 2024, 5, 382-396. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5010025
Qian Y. Critical Discourse Analysis on Parental Language Ideologies of Bilingual and Multilingual Child-Rearing and Language Education Using Facebook and Internet Forums. Journalism and Media. 2024; 5(1):382-396. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5010025
Chicago/Turabian StyleQian, Yeshan. 2024. "Critical Discourse Analysis on Parental Language Ideologies of Bilingual and Multilingual Child-Rearing and Language Education Using Facebook and Internet Forums" Journalism and Media 5, no. 1: 382-396. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5010025
APA StyleQian, Y. (2024). Critical Discourse Analysis on Parental Language Ideologies of Bilingual and Multilingual Child-Rearing and Language Education Using Facebook and Internet Forums. Journalism and Media, 5(1), 382-396. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5010025