Pass it on! Encouraging intergenerational language
transmission
Una Cunningham & Jeanette King
Impetus
•
•
60
insight that many bilingual parents in New Zealand
are not speaking LOTE to their children
Asian
a recent government report advising migrant
parents to speak English at home.
50
Method
•
census and other official statistical data,
•
research on intergenerational transmission of
languages
•
40
Māori
%
30
interviews with parents and young people
Research questions
•
what factors influence the linguistic choices parents
make?
•
what advice do parents have for new parents?
Middle
Eastern/Latin
American/African
Pacific Peoples
Other Ethnicity
European
20
10
Outcomes
•
website for research-informed advice and sharing
•
wide dissemination of information about
bilingualism to parents and professionals.
0
Percentage of NZ children of various ethnicities
who speak more than one language, Census:
2013