1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The goal of this study was to investigate the lived experience of parenting of a child who is attending school in a language that differs from the home language.» (p. 933)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«The central question for this phenomenological inquiry is: What is it like to parent a child who is attending school in a language that differs from the home language?» (p. 930)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
L’échantillon est composé d’une mère de famille anglophone dont le fils fréquente un établissement scolaire francophone.

Instruments :
Guide d’entretien semi-directif

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

«Parental decision making in the scholarship on L2 programs often focuses on reasons why parents enroll or reenroll their children in a program, including reasons like community influence [and] parents’ consideration of language as a marker of identity [or] an access to an imagined community […]. The structure of Marjorie’s experience echoes these factors, and offers evidence that these factors are not usually unidirectional or fixed. [Moreover, the] essential structure of Marjorie’s experience revealed that she was often required to make firm guesses from unclear information [Also, the] essential structure of Marjorie’s experience is that the maintenance of the parental role was paramount, and that that she was less concerned with Ravi translating for her when she was still able to maintain her parental role. However, when his language brokering hindered her ability to be an advocate for him (her self-identified parental role), she found it to be problematic. This brings an interesting and challenging perspective to the complexity of language brokering, suggesting that its acceptability to the parent is dependent on the relationship between their somewhat stable beliefs about their parental role and the more rapidly changing circumstances of their child’s language development. […] Finally, the literature suggests that the support of schooling in the home is influenced by parental worries about the maintenance of the home language […]. Marjorie’s essential experience of ‘going in waves’ about language mirrors this issue directly.» (p. 939-940)