1. Objectifs

Intentions :
The aims of this article were two-fold. Firstly, authors «aimed to investigate the nature of parents’ attitudes towards childhood multilingualism. […] Secondly, [they] aimed to determine variables that correlate with parental attitudes towards childhood multilingualism.» (p. 529-530)

Questions/Hypothèses :
Hypotheses (Hs) were : «H1: Parents’ attitudes towards childhood multilingualism have different evaluative dimensions. H1a: Status and solidarity constitute separate evaluative dimensions of parents’ attitudes towards childhood multilingualism. H1b: Parents’ attitudes towards childhood multilingualism have a further evaluative dimension, namely cognitive development.» (p. 532)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«The participant sample consists of 825 parents who, at the time of data collection, lived in Quebec, were over the age of 18, and were raising a typically-developing infant or toddler aged 0–4 years with multiple languages in the home. 5 72.0% of the participants lived in Montreal and 28.0% lived elsewhere in Quebec. Their ages ranged from 23 to 56, with a mean age of 35 years. 92.9% of participants identified as female, 6.4% identified as male, 0.5% indicated a gender other than female or male, and 0.2% did not provide information concerning their gender.» (p. 537)

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«The factor analysis results revealed three distinct factors, thus providing support for H1: The participants’ attitudes did indeed have different evaluative dimensions. [The] study is thus the first to confirm the multi-dimensionality of attitudes towards childhood multilingualism. As hypothesized, two of the factors [authors] found corresponded to the evaluative dimensions present in attitudes towards individual languages, namely status and solidarity (H1a). [Their] findings therefore show that the “universal importance” that status and solidarity have for the understanding of attitudes […] applies not only to attitudes towards individual languages – it also extends to attitudes towards childhood multilingualism. Moreover, as hypothesized, the third factor [authors] found corresponded to an evaluative dimension pertaining to children’s cognitive development (H1b). Attitudes on the cognitive development dimension manifested in parents’ belief that knowing multiple languages entails cognitive benefits for their child. Specifically, the ACMQ [Attitudes towards Childhood Multilingualism Questionnaire] revealed that [the] participants believed childhood multilingualism would make their children better learners and more flexible thinkers as well as improving their reasoning abilities and facilitating the acquisition of further languages later in life.» (p. 541-543)