Bilingual Parents' Experiences Receiving Advice Regarding Language Use: A Qualitative Perspective

Abstract

Purpose: This study examined the advice parents of bilingual children received from health care professionals and teachers regarding the language(s) their bilingual children should learn and use. There were two groups of bilingual parents: parents of children who had received speech-language pathology services (BI-SLP) and parents of children who had not received speech-language pathology services (BI-TD). Method: Participants included 14 parents of BI-TD and 10 parents of BI-SLP. All parents were interviewed in Spanish via phone using a semistructured interview. Qualitative content analysis was used to examine common themes regarding linguistic advice received while raising their bilingual children. Results: Our findings suggest that about half of the parents in each group reported never receiving any language use advice. For those parents who received advice, the advice originated from both additive and subtractive views of bilingualism. Parents reported that speech-language pathologists, teachers, physicians, family members, and friends were the sources of advice. Parents of children BI-TD who received advice discouraging bilingualism ignored the advice and continued exposing their children to two languages. In contrast, parents of children BI-SLP took the advice of restricting educational instruction to English only. Conclusion: Although there is no current evidence supporting the notion that bilingualism is detrimental to the speech and language development of children with and without speech-language disorders, advice discouraging bilingualism still exists, even in strong bilingual contexts.