Abstract Summary
Our research investigates how parenting style, home enrichment, and L1 proficiency impact primary school students’ L2 development in EFL and immersion contexts. Our results showed that bilingual (immersion) educational programs may potentially reduce the impact of parenting style and home enrichment on L2 development.
Abstract :
Earlier research has demonstrated that second language (L2) development is highly prone to influence from a wide range of environmental and individual differences (Farretta-Stutenberg&Morgan-Short, 2018). For example, differences in socioeconomic status (SES) may lead to both quantitatively and qualitatively different linguistic outcomes (Butler&Le, 2018). Similarly, a decision to enroll children in immersion or monolingual schools may dramatically alter young learners’ L2 developmental trajectory (Trebits&Kersten, 2019).
In the present paper we focus on two factors that may impact primary school students’ L2 development in dynamic and complex ways: SES operationalized as parenting style and home enrichment, as well as L1 proficiency. More specifically, we were interested in how stimulation received in the home may interact with the L2 program offered in immersion and monolingual schools. In addition, we also explored the relationship between L1 proficiency and the developing L2 abilities in the immersion and EFL contexts.
Participants (N=56) were students at monolingual (German) and bilingual (German-English) primary schools in Germany. In a longitudinal study, we investigated school type, parenting style, home enrichment and receptive L1 (German) as predictors and L2 (English) vocabulary and grammar as dependent variables using standardizes language tests and a parental questionnaire to elicit home enrichment and parenting style.
Preliminary statistical analyses included repeated measures ANOVAs and multiple linear regression. The analyses revealed that parenting style, home enrichment and L1 proficiency seem to affect L2 development differentially in the monolingual and immersion contexts. At monolingual schools where students had two English as a foreign language (EFL) lessons a week, the influence of home experiences and first language proficiency was significantly greater than for immersion students who had a considerably more intensive daily contact with the L2. These results show that bilingual (immersion) educational programs may potentially reduce the impact of parenting style and home enrichment on L2 development.
