Presented by Ulrike C Glinzner Flinders University, SA ulrike.glinzner@flinders.au

1. Presented by Ulrike C GlinznerFlinders University, SAulrike.glinzner@flinders.edu.au PARENTS AS TEACHERS: TEACHING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE FOR HOME LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AFMLTA National Conference 2011

2. Content • Background: Parent involvement in ethnic schools • Literature Review • The study • Participants • Findings • Summary

3. From a parent’s perspective “I have friends who do not speak to their children in the minority language but send them to language School on Sunday mornings hoping that this will be sufficient. … I wasn’t too impressed with the results.” (“A Reader’s Success Story”, 2008, 3, p. 3)

4. Literature Review: What is parent involvement? • The “dedication of resources by the parent to the child within a given domain” (Grolnick, Benjet, Kurowski and Apostoleris, 1997, p. 538). • Figure 1: Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s (2005) revised model (Walker, Wilkins, Dallaire, Sandler and Hoover-Dempsey, 2005 in Green et al, 2007).

5. Literature review • Positive effects of parental involvement on children’s schooling(Gonzalez-DeHass, Willems and Holbein,2005; Xuesong, 2006) • Importance of maintaining community languages (Döpke, 1996; Clyne, 1991; Clyne and Kipp, 1997; Pauwels, 2005) • Child gets eventually morelinguistic input from the lingua franca (Döpke, 1996)

6. Literature review • Persistence and consistency in using the language and parental teaching techniques have a crucial impact on successful language maintenance (Pauwels, 2005) • Parental involvement is important for children’s language learning (Xuesong, 2006) • How parental involvement is realised in families is extremely variable (Clark, 2000; Xuesong, 2006)

7. The study Study purpose: • to explore influences on parents’ home involvement in children’s German language learning • develop an understanding of participants’ home involvement Method: Multiple instrumental case study design Instruments: Semi-structured Interviews Qualitative data analysis: content analysis

8. Participants • Both parents in10 families • eight families were mixed marriages (six of them between a German and an English participant) • two families English dominant • well educated - all but two parents completed tertiary studies. Mothers slightly better educated than fathers • families had two children with a mean age of seven years

9. Participants’ language practice in the home

10. Findings: Parents’ home involvement forms • Parent-child activities • Parents’ regulating and motivating strategies • Providing a stimulating linguistic environment

11. Findings: Home involvement - Parent-child activities

12. Findings: Home involvement -Parents’ regulating and motivating strategies

13. Findings: Home involvement -Providing a stimulating linguistic environment

14. Findings: Parents’ main involvement strategyand time spent

15. Summary • All but four parents were actively involved in their children’s learning of a community language • Most parents reported on all three involvement forms, one main involvement strategy • ‘Mainly conversing in German with the child’, • ‘A combination of speaking and other parent – child activities’, • ‘Regulative strategies’ • ‘The provision of German resources’. • ‘A more passive involvement’ • Strategies including speech versus alternative support

16. Summary • For three types of diverse involvement strategies an association with the amount or lack of time used • More male English speakers supported by searching for resources, encouraging the use of German media; two to four hours per week • All but one German native speaker viewed speaking the target language with their child as their main form of involvement • An emotional attachment to the German language and culture determined whether and how often German was used to communicate with the child

17. Thank you! • Questions?

18. References • Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: Freeman. • Borkowski, J. G. (1988). Effects of Attributional Retraining on Strategy-Based Reading Comprehension in Learning Disabled Students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 46-53. • Brown, Z. A., Hammond, O. W., & Onikama, D. L. (1997). Language Use at Home and School: A Synthesis of Research for Pacific Educators. Research Series.Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ • Clark, B. (2000, November). First- and Second- Language Acquisition in Early Childhood. Presented at the Lilian Katz Symposium: Champaign, IL. • Clyne, M. (1985). Multilingual Australia. Melbourne: River Seine Publications. • Community Languages Australia. (2008). About us. Retrieved from http://www.communitylanguagesaustralia.org.au/AboutUs.php • De Klerk, V. (2001). The Cross-Marriage Language Dilemma: His Language or Hers? International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 4(3), 197-216. • Döpke, S. (1996). Raising Children Bilingually. Some suggestions for parents. Retrieved from http://www.bilingualoptions.com.au/ • Fillmore, L. W. (1982). Instructional language as linguistic learning in classrooms. In L. C. Wilkinson (Ed.), Communicating in the classroom (pp. 283-296). New York: Academic Press. • Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social Psychology and Second Language Learning. London: Edward Arnold. • Glinzner, C. U. (2010). Motivational and contextual influences on parents' home involvement in children's learning of a minority language in an ethnic school (master's thesis). Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia. • Gonzalez, G., & Maez, L. F. (1995). Advances in Research in Bilingual Education. Directions in Language and Education, 1(5), 694-701. • Graham, S. (1991). A review of attribution theory in achievement contexts. Educational Psychology Review, 3, 5-39. • Green, C. L., Walker, J. M. T., Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, H. M. (2007). Parents' Motivations for Involvement in Children's Education: An Empirical Test of a Theoretical Model of Parental Involvement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(3), 532- 544. • Grolnick, W. S., Benjet, C., Kurowski, C. O., & Apostoleris, N. H. (1997). Predictors of Parent Involvement in Children's Schooling. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(3), 538- 548.

19. References • Harding, E., & Riley, P. (1986). The Bilingual Family: A Handbook for Parents. Sydney: Cambridge University Press. • Holmen, A., & Others. (1992, September). Parent Attitudes to Children's L1 Maintenance. A Cross-Sectional Study of Immigrant Groups in the Nordic Countries.Paper presented at the Conference on Maintenance and Loss of Ethnic Minority Languages, Netherlands. • Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., Bassler, O. C., & Brissie, J. S. (1987). Parent Involvement: Contributions of Teacher Efficacy, School Socioeconomic Status, and Other School Characteristics. American Educational Research Journal, 24, 417-435. • Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, H. M. (1995). Parental involvement in children’s education: Why does it make a difference? Teachers College Record, 97(2), p. 310-331. • Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, H. M. (1997). Why Do Parents Become Involved in Their Children's Education? Review of Educational Research, 67(1), 3-42. • Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., Walker, J. M. T., Sandler, H. M., Whetsel, D., Green, C. L., Wilkins, A. S. (2005). Why Do Parents Become Involved? Research Findings and Implications. The Elementary School Journal, 106(2), 105-131. • Leaver, B. L., Ehrman, M., & Shekhtman, B. (2005). Achieving Success in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Non Government School publication. (2009). Ethnic Schools in South Australia. Retrieved from http://www.ngss.sa.edu.au • Pauwels, A. (2005). Maintaining the Community Language in Australia: Challenges and Roles for Families. The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 8(2&3), 124- 131. • Pütz, M. (1991). Language Maintenance and Language Shift in the Speech Behaviour of German-Australian Migrants in Canberra. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 12(6), 477-492. • Smolicz, J. J. (1984). Summary of Education for a cultural democracy: report to the Minister of Education of the Task Force to Investigate Multiculturalism and Education. South Australia: Education Department. • Walker, J. M. T., Wilkins, A. S., Dallaire, J. R., Sandler, H. M., & Hoover-Dempsey, K. V. (2005). Parental Involvement: Model Revision through Scale Development. The Elementary School Journal, 106(2), 85- 105. • Xuesong, G. (2006). Strategies Used by Chinese Parents to Support English Language Learning. RELC Journal, 37(3), 285-298.