1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The research presented here has focused on the patterns and predictors of intergenerational language transmission in Quebec by examining participants’ language choices when speaking with their children.» (p. 433)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«The participant sample consisted of 274 Quebec-based parents whose ages ranged from 18 to 44, with a mean age of 35 years. […] 62% were female, 38% male. 38% had French as their L1, 42% English, 7% both French and English, and 13% had L1s other than French or English […]. 55% of the participants lived in Montreal and 45% elsewhere in the province, and 63% were born in Quebec while 37% had a migration background.» (p. 426)

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«The findings show that the parents who took part in this study were more likely to transmit French to their children if the language was their L1, or one of their L1s. In addition to this, high proficiency in French and positive attitudes towards it on the solidarity dimension were found to be further significant predictors of the language’s intergenerational transmission. The fact that L1, proficiency, and attitudes on the solidarity dimension also emerged as significant for the intergenerational transmission of another language, namely English, can be seen as support for the notion that these factors may predict language transmission in general, rather than specifically the transmission of French in Quebec. However, as this study did not extend beyond Quebec, it is impossible to say with certainty whether or not these predictors are in some way context-dependent. Be that as it may, for both French and English, these three variables predicted a large proportion of the variance regarding intergenerational language transmission, thereby indicating their importance. The findings of the current study thus lend support to the aforementioned aspects of De Houwer’s (1999) theory regarding the role of attitudes in determining parents’ linguistic choices (and consequently affecting their children’s early bilingual development).» (p. 431)