ERIC Number: EJ1468964
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1479-0718
EISSN: EISSN-1747-7530
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Trilingual Families' Language Strategies: Potential Predictors and Effect on Trilingual Exposure
Erin Quirk1; Natasha Hadeed1; Krista Byers-Heinlein1
International Journal of Multilingualism, v22 n2 p340-357 2025
Family language strategies are approaches that parents adopt for language use with their multilingual children. In bilingual contexts, these strategies influence children's language exposure and development (MacLeod et al., 2022). In the more complex context of trilingualism, how families settle on strategies and their relationship with exposure may differ. We examined these relationships in a pre-registered online study of 31 families raising trilingual toddlers aged 18-36 months living in Montreal with English, French -- the city's two community languages -- and various heritage languages. Families' language strategy and language background, children's exposure, and parents' attitudes and concerns towards children's trilingualism were assessed via questionnaire. The most frequent strategies adopted involved mixed use of a community and heritage language with children. Strategies that excluded the community languages at home were associated with lower parent proficiency in the community languages and higher heritage language exposure. Mixed strategies led to more balanced exposure to the three languages. Attitudes towards trilingualism were favourable, concerns were weak, and neither showed a relationship with family language strategy choice. These findings shed new light on the unique features of trilingual language environments and open future directions for research on how they relate to the development of three languages.
Descriptors: Family Relationship, Multilingualism, Language Usage, Second Language Learning, Native Language, Toddlers, French, English (Second Language), Foreign Countries, Family Environment, Language Attitudes, Language Proficiency, Parent Child Relationship, Immigrants, Questionnaires
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada (Montreal)
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1R01HD09591201A1
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Psychology, Concordia University