A monolingual future?
INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF MINORITY LANGUAGES IN NEW
ZEALAND
Overview

Statistical situation

Advice to parents in New Zealand

Plunket

Huggies

Office of Ethnic Affairs Report

Our and others’ critique (Massey and TESOLANZ)

Our project

Planned outcome
Statistical situation
monolingual
bilingual

At least 168 LOTE spoken by children in NZ

240,750 of children living at home in NZ (20.1%) could speak more than one language

The highest proportion of children who speak two languages or more is in Auckland (29.1%)

In NZ as a whole 53% of multilingual children are resident in Auckland

11,391 more multilingual children living in Auckland since last census

Twelve out of sixteen districts now have >10% of children who are multilingual
Statistical situation

Languages spoken by children living at home

Most spoken language by children in Auckland is
Samoan

Numbers of German, French, Japanese and
Spanish speakers inflated by those learning at
secondary school
Statistical situation
Most European, Māori and Pacific
children are monolingual in English.
Percentage of NZ children who speak more than one language by ethnicity, Census: 2013
Statistical situation

Over one-third (35.0 percent) of
overseas-born children (aged 0 to 14
years) were able to speak two or more
languages, compared with 11.5 percent
of New Zealand-born children.

Once children are born in NZ their
likelihood of learning their home
language is not much greater than the
percentage of NZ born people who can
speak more than one language
Problem
A recent report, Language and Integration in New Zealand
from the Office of Ethnic Affairs considering the role of
language in integration outcomes of migrants advises
LOTE-parents to speak English to their children to help the
child’s English language development.
Ethnic Affairs report

Home is given as a key domain for both
acquiring proficiency in English and
heritage language maintenance.

reference to interview data from the
Longitudinal Immigration Study about
adult students’ preference for
homestay (Learning the Lingo)

Dr Hilary Smith, President of TESOLANZ,
wrote a response to the report

Dr Arianna Berardi-Wiltshire of Massey
University expressed her concern about
the report to the Department.
Those determined to speak English
took steps to live with native
speakers. Some participants’ families
organised home -stay billets with Kiwi
families as part of a ‘package’ in
advance of leaving for New Zealand,
so ‘ you can speak English all the time,
instead staying with a friend [when]
you speak Chinese all the time …
really no good for you’.
Esser’s findings

Objective is linguistic assimilation

Shift happens

Only English language proficiency is predicative of school results

Reduced message that competence in LOTE is irrelevant to academic success
and exposure to English should be maximised, so you should speak English at
home

No reason relevant to our context to advise against raising baby bilingually.
Our project


Prong 1: interview study of families where NZ-born bilingual child has reached
year 12 or 13.

What has been their experience at different stages of the child’s development?

What factors have influenced their decisions about languages?

What advice do they have for new parents?
Prong 2: Study of commissioned data from the 2013 Census focusing on the
bilingual outcome of NZ-born children who are in families where more than
one language is spoken.

We are interested in the most widely spoken 20 languages.
Christchurch

9% Asian children

10% speakers of languages other than English

What is the situation in Auckland and elsewhere in New Zealand?
Planned outcomes

Brochures and research-informed
professional development for midwives,
Plunket staff, early childhood educators

One-two Masters and/or doctoral theses
sited in the project.

Website with research informed
information and advice for parents
 Interviews with parents and adult children
http://goo.gl/JHoysP
References

Bell, A., Harlow, R., and Stark, D. (2005). Languages of New Zealand.
Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press.

Cunningham, U. (2011). Growing up with two languages. London: Routledge.

Esser, H. (2006). Migration, language and integration – AKI- Research Review 4.

Office of Ethnic Affairs. (2013). Language and integration in New Zealand.
Retrieved from http://ethnicaffairs.govt.nz/story/language-information-andadvice