How and Why Bilingualism is Being Promoted by Omani Parents and How Bilingualism is Impacting their Children’s Everyday Lives

Abstract

Expectations of the globalized society and changes in family dynamics have a significant impact on children’s development as supported by the Ecological Systems Theory. Parents have become more interested in raising their children as bilinguals as it has become an inescapable trend, particularly in certain regions of the world. Children of the Gulf are also affected by this bilingualism movement. Therefore, this study attempts to understand the bilingual children of the Gulf in the case of Oman by addressing three major research questions: (1) “why and how bilingualism is being promoted by parents”, (2) “how bilingualism is impacting on the intergenerational relationships in the Gulf family”, and (3) “how bilingualism is impacting Gulf children's everyday lives”. Participants were ten parents whose children were enrolled at a bilingual education program at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). The data was collected through interviews and the case study approach was deployed in data analysis. Findings were revealed about why and how parents promote bilingualism, to what extent the bilingualism impact on the intergenerational relations, and the effects of bilingualism on children’s everyday lives. Implications and recommendations for policy, practice, and research are offered. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.12.9