Abstract
AbstractParents and prospective parents who speak a language other than English in New Zealand are in something of an information desert when it comes to how and why they might go about raising their children bilingually. While the official languages, Te Reo Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, have special status among the languages of New Zealand, other languages are viewed very much as the responsibility of ethnolinguistic communities. To support the intergenerational transmission of minority languages in New Zealand, research-informed material has been created for dissemination in a website, an associated Facebook page and a series of lecture-workshops for parents and professionals which have been made available in digital form in this website. Workshops continue to be offered to professionals such as speech-language therapists, early childhood educators, midwives, doctors, and nurses who work with families with young children. Questions asked during these workshops help to select the myths about multilingualism we need to address in this outreach to irrigate and green the information desert. Already, a bilingual French class and a Swedish playgroup have been set up as direct results of the parents’ workshop events. Individual parents have reported feeling empowered to persevere in their efforts to raise their children as speakers of their language. Invitations to contribute to education programs for the professionals who work close to young children are beginning to arrive.
Highlights
Parents and prospective parents who speak a language other than English in New Zealand are in something of an information desert when it comes to how and why they might go about raising their children bilingually
It seems clear that the 2013 report from the Office of Ethnic Affairs prioritized the development of proficiency in English over the intergenerational transmission of community and heritage languages, and that parents receiving this information, in the absence of any other information, would be unlikely to speak their language to their emergent bilingual children (García & Kleifgen, 2010)
Of particular interest were the work of the Research Unit for Multilingualism and Cross-Cultural Communication (RUMACCC) at the University of Melbourne in Australia which conducts annual workshops which target both families raising their children bi- or trilingually and interested professionals (Hajek, 2017), and the pamphlets produced by Gagarina and colleagues at the Centre for General Linguistics Berlin. (Gagarina, Posse, Düsterhöft, Topaj, & Acikgöz, 2014)
Summary
In New Zealand there is very little publicly available information about bilingualism, and learning about bilingualism and bilingual language development is not a substantial part of education programs for pre-service primary or early childhood teachers, nurses, midwives or speech-language therapists. It seems clear that the 2013 report from the Office of Ethnic Affairs prioritized the development of proficiency in English over the intergenerational transmission of community and heritage languages, and that parents receiving this information, in the absence of any other information, would be unlikely to speak their language to their emergent bilingual children (García & Kleifgen, 2010). The current position in New Zealand is that there is little official support or information available in support of parents speaking their languages to their children, or about the value of bilingualism to the individual, family, community or the nation This is not the position in other countries with more pluralistic migration policies, such as neighboring Australia, with a developed program for the teaching of languages other than English (LOTE) in schools in the state of Victoria (Willoughby, 2014), and the innovative Early Learning Languages Australia (ELLA) programme (Australian Government, 2018). Of particular interest were the work of the Research Unit for Multilingualism and Cross-Cultural Communication (RUMACCC) at the University of Melbourne in Australia which conducts annual workshops which target both families raising their children bi- or trilingually and interested professionals (Hajek, 2017), and the pamphlets produced by Gagarina and colleagues at the Centre for General Linguistics Berlin. (Gagarina, Posse, Düsterhöft, Topaj, & Acikgöz, 2014)
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