Minority Language Proficiency of Multicultural Adolescents: The Effects of Bicultural Acceptance Attitudes, Parents’ Educational Support, and the Use of the Minority Language at Home

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the factors that influence multicultural adolescents’ proficiency in their mother’s native language, or their immigrant mother’s native language. A hierarchical regression analysis was performed on data from the survey answered by 1,028 multicultural adolescents aged 15 years old and whose mothers were from foreign countries for the 6th Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study(MAPS) conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute (NYPI) in 2016. The main results are as follows. First, multicultural adolescents’ minority language proficiency was generally low and significant differences were observed according to their gender, parents’ educational level, household income, and mother’s native country. More specifically, a higher proficiency in minority language was found for girls than boys, adolescents with a higher parental educational level, adolescents with a higher income, and adolescents whose mothers were from Japan or China, compared with those from the Philippines, Thailand, or Vietnam. Second, a significant positive correlation was observed between multicultural adolescents’ minority language proficiency and 1) foreign culture acceptance, 2) parent’s educational support, and 3) the use of the minority language at home. Third, foreign culture acceptance, parents’ educational support, and the use of the minority language at home were predictors of multicultural adolescents’ minority language proficiency. The study is meaningful in that it examined multicultural adolescents’ minority language proficiency, elucidating their bilingual development, whereas previous studies have only focused on their proficiency in Korean, which is the majority language.