Exploring Parental Motivations, Attitudes, and Home Literacy Practices Towards Bilingualism

Subject Areas : آموزش زبان انگلیسی

حامد  برجسته ¹ (Department of English Language and Literature, Ayatolla Amoli Branch, Islamic Azad University, Amol, Mazandaran, Iran)
رضا  واثقی ² (Department of English Language and Literature, Ayatollah Amoli Branch, Islamic University, Amol, Iran)
علی اصغر  یوسفی آذرفام ³ (Department of English Language Education, Soufian Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran)

Received: 2016-12-02 Accepted : 2016-12-02 Published : 2016-12-02

Keywords: attitudes, Bilingualism, home literacy practices, Iranian parents, motivations,

Abstract :

This study embarks upon uncovering the probable relationships between Iranian parents’ attitudes, motivations, and home literacy practices (HLP) towards bilingualism, Persian and English. To undertake the study, sixty-eight parents of young language learners (YLLs) were asked to fill up a survey questionnaire. The questionnaire aimed to uncover parental attitudes, motivation, and the types of HLP towards bilingualism. The results of Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression analysis indicated that parents espoused positive holistic attitudes, integrative motivation, and formal practices in HLP towards bilingualism. The findings also revealed that there was positive relationship between parental attitudes, motivation and HLP. The multiple regression analysis for the corresponding variables revealed that only motivations predict the variance in the home literacy practices. Implications for teachers, policy makers, and curriculum developers along with some suggestions are provided.

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