ABSTRACT

As the U.S. population who speaks a language other than English at home continues to grow, few studies have focused on the effect of parental beliefs on the importance of bilingualism have on language outcomes of their children. In this study, we surveyed families raising Spanish-English bilingual children on their beliefs concerning both languages, language practices they implement at home, at school, and in the community, and language outcomes of their children. Using a single mediator model, this study aimed to understand the impact of parental beliefs on language outcomes in Spanish and English and the mediating effects of language practices. We then examined the individual mediating effects of language practices at home, school, and community on the relationship between parental beliefs and language outcomes for each language using a multiple mediator model. Our results suggest that parental beliefs in Spanish predict Spanish language outcomes and parental beliefs in English predict English outcomes and that practices in each language mediated this effect. In particular, we found that Spanish practices at home mediated the effect of language outcomes in Spanish and that English practices at home and in the community mediated English language outcomes.

摘要

随着在家里说英语以外的其他语言的美国人口持续增长，很少有研究关注父母对双语重要性的信念对孩子语言结果的影响。在这项研究中，我们调查了抚养西班牙-英语双语儿童的家庭对两种语言的看法、他们在家里、学校和社区实施的语言实践，以及他们孩子的语言成果。本研究使用单一中介模型，旨在了解父母信念对西班牙语和英语语言结果的影响以及语言实践的中介作用。然后我们检查了在家庭、学校、和社区使用多重中介模型研究每种语言的父母信仰和语言结果之间的关系。我们的结果表明，父母对西班牙语的信念可以预测西班牙语的结果，而父母对英语的信念可以预测英语的结果，并且每种语言的实践都在调节这种影响。特别是，我们发现在家里的西班牙语练习调节了西班牙语语言结果的影响，而在家里和社区中的英语练习调节了英语语言的结果。