Abstract
This study examines the mother-reported language practice in bilingual English/German-Norwegian, two-parent families in Norway, and explores the effects of (1) parental input patterns, (2) parental gender, and (3) status of the heritage languages (HL), on success of HL transmission and on children’s language use with siblings when the children were age five. Using mother-reported questionnaire data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa; a national birth cohort in Norway), we collected information about the languages spoken by the children and the home language use of 204 English-Norwegian and 99 German-Norwegian families. The success rate of HL transmission was reported to be 79.9% in English-Norwegian families, and 72.2% in German-Norwegian families. However, less than half of the bilingual children interacted in HL with their siblings. Different parental input patterns were found to have different effects on HL transmission and on children’s HL use with siblings. Additional HL input from the Norwegian parent seemed not only to promote HL transmission, but also increase the probability of children’s HL use with siblings. Mothers being the HL user was associated with higher rates of HL transmission and higher rates of children’s HL use with siblings.
Highlights
In the age of globalization, more and more children grow up exposed to more than one language
Consistent with previous research by De Houwer (2007), we found that parental input patterns were associated with success/failure of home language (HL) transmission
We found that an increased proportion of HL input from the HL parent was associated with increased rates of HL transmission, when keeping the input from the Norwegian parent constant
Summary
In the age of globalization, more and more children grow up exposed to more than one language. Heritage/home language (HL), defined as the language spoken by at least one of the Journal of Home Language Research, ISSN 2537-7043, http://jhlr.org.nz/. This work is licensed under a Creative Common Attrition 4.0 International Licence. Schjølberg & Tambs parents at home, but not spoken in the wider community, is often the first language(s) to which a child is exposed from birth in natural and spontaneous situations. Exposure to a HL would seem to be the most practical and effortless way to achieve bilingual proficiency. Research indicates that not all children living in bilingual environments become bilingual and retain their acquired language proficiency as they grow older Research indicates that not all children living in bilingual environments become bilingual and retain their acquired language proficiency as they grow older (e.g. De Houwer, 2007; Pearson, 2007; Portes & Hao, 1998; Verdon, McLeod, & Winsler, 2014)
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