Raising children bi- and plurilingually. A study of parents' reasoning, strategies and attitudes

Nowadays more and more children in Switzerland are raised bi- or even plurilingually. While many studies have had a closer look at the bilingual child itself, this study focuses more on the parents. The choices, strategies and ideas of parents who raise their children bi- or plurilingually are explored with a qualitative, discourse-analytical approach. For this, I conducted eight interviews with parents living in the Winterthur area (whenever possible, both mother and father). To assess whether different languages had any impact on the parents’ attitude towards bilingualism, families with different backgrounds were chosen. The following languages are represented by the families: Swiss German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Arabic, Polish, Italian, English. The analysis showed that most families follow a strategy that is a mix of different strategies much rather than one which fits the textbook. Much more important for their reasoning is the parents´ comfortability with the language and their abilities in both languages. There was no strong connection between the languages spoken and their reasoning. Further it can be shown that the perceived advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism are very similar to those described by Baker (2000). Even the amount of positive and negative aspects mentioned were similar. Overall, the parents showed a very positive attitude towards bilingualism. When talking about potential negative aspects their opinions were stated with less conviction