Experiences of Parents on Artificial Bilingualism

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to reveal the experiences, opinions and perceptions of parents who teach their children English during the mother tongue acquisition period and raise them as bilingual individuals although their mother tongue is not English. This research was carried out in a strong qualitative method, phenomenology design. The study group was determined by criterion sampling method. Semi-structured eight interviews were done with 8 parents who participated in the research. Content analysis method is used to organize and elicit meaning from the collected data. During the interviews, participants mentioned not only positive experiences but also negative experiences. The general perception of participants about bilingualism is positive. On the other hand, participants stated some setbacks and downsides in the process of raising bilingual kids. One participant stated that the downsides she experienced made her suspicious about bilingualism and her practice. Some parents stated that people around them reacted negatively to their practices on raising their kids as bilinguals. Also, they mentioned the troubles they experienced because of communicating with their kids in English which is not their mother tongue. All but one of the families follow a similar method to acquire two languages to their children simultaneously. One family applies “one parent, one language” method and the other families follow a method in which one parent uses one language to communicate with the child, and the other parent uses both languages. Considering parents' perceptions of their children's language skills, some think that their children experienced setbacks in language development.

Keywords

• English teaching
• teaching English to young children
• bilingualism
• artificial bilingualism

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