The present study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire assessing parents' beliefs about, and attitudes toward, supporting young children's English as a second/foreign language development -- Parent English Language Belief and Attitude Questionnaire (PELBA-Q). The PELBA-Q was piloted with 173 parents of kindergarten-aged children and…

An important aspect of Family Language Policy in bilingual families is parental language choice. Little is known about the continuity in parental language choice and the factors affecting it. This longitudinal study explores maternal language choice over time. Thirty-one bilingual mothers provided reports of what language(s) they spoke with their…

In this paper, we present a synthesis of a series of studies, carried out by our research groups, from the Greek educational context on teachers' and immigrant students' views on issues of bilingual acquisition and of heritage language learning and teaching. Albeit including heterogeneous samples and employing quantitative and qualitative…

With more than 64,500 members, the Bangladeshi community in London is one of the largest in the UK. Originating from a wave of immigration during the 1970s, a considerable part of the community now consists of a second, UK-born generation. This explorative study seeks to address, first, the extent of the intergenerational language shift from…

The study examines the sustainability status of Sarawak indigenous languages through a survey on adolescents' language use using the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS). The specific aspects examined were: the presence of ethnic languages in relation to other languages in selected domains of language use; the adolescents'…

Through observation, questionnaires and, particularly, ethnographic interviews with parents, pupils, teachers and community organisers associated with a Yemeni complementary school, this paper develops a portrait of language repertoires, practices and preferences in a Yemeni diasporic community in a northern English city. Also investigated are the…

This study explores the language choice among Iranians in Sweden, both inside and outside the home domain. The data are collected from 188 participants through structured interviews and questionnaires. The results show that Persian is the main instrument of communication in the home domain between parents and children. However, some Swedish is…

The present study describes factors affecting the home and school literacy patterns in the Ethiopian immigrant community in Israel. Parents were asked to complete a questionnaire evaluating their child's development, literacy, schooling, and language proficiency (L1 and L2). The results indicate that while non-Ethiopian and Ethiopian parents seek…

The family unit and home domain have been and remain important in heritage language maintenance efforts. There are complex relationships between parental language attitudes, their application in everyday language management activities and the children's knowledge of home language vocabulary. The present large-scale study examined the family policy…

The Greek Orthodox community of Istanbul has long existed as a bilingual Greek and Turkish grouping and remains largely unstudied. The sharp decrease in the size of this community to approximately 1000 members raises questions as to the maintenance of Greek in this setting. This study attempts to establish the current status of Greek in the…

The paper presents the results of an empirical evaluation of a mathematical model of ethnolinguistic vitality. The model adds several new factors to the set used in previous models of ethnolinguistic vitality and operationalises it in a manner that would make it easier to compare the vitality of different groups. According to the model, the…

Compares how bilingualism is perceived and how languages are used in two different groups of cross-native/community language (CNCL) families: Japanese-non-English CNCL families and Japanese-English (CNCL) families. A questionnaire survey found differences between the two groups. (Author/VWL)

Examines the perceptions of European teenagers living in Europe regarding that continent. The study focuses on their declared knowledge sources, attitudes towards a European identity and second language learning and future aspirations. The article discusses the role of schools, the media, and the home environment in shaping the perceptions of…