I present a detailed abstract of my Master thesis.
This thesis is realized within the framework of the Master in Child and Adolescent Psychology and is part of Camille Humeau’s doctoral research work. This research aims to study the factors can mediate the link between bilingualism and the subjective well-being of children in the fifth grade. Bilingualism is considered a widespread societal phenomenon because half of the world’s population regularly uses one or more languages in their daily lives (Grosjean, 2010). In France, bilingualism concerns 20% of the population and we considered that a bilingual child acquires two distinct languages : the minority language or the non-dominant language of society corresponds to the language of socialization of parents, e.g., Arabic, and the majority language or the dominant language of society that is learned at school, e.g., French. In a country like France where representations of learning are rather monolingual, the learning and use of languages other than French and regional languages is seen as a challenge for individuals (Abdelilah-Bauer, 2006 ; Hélot, 2007). In this sociolinguistic context where the languages of socialization do not have the same value, the well-being of bilingual child can be impacted (De Houwer, 2015), especially his life satisfaction which refers to the cognitive and affective evaluation that each person makes of his life as a whole or in the different dimensions that compose it. Life satisfaction is constituted of 5 domains: family, peers, school, living environment and the self.
Upstream, we consider that the language capacities of monolingual or bilingual children are built first through the family environment with which they interact and specifically through parental verbal interaction strategies (Nocus, Florin, Lacroix, Lainé, & Guimard, 2016). Moreover, we know that these linguistic practices are influenced by parental representations of the minority language, which refers to parents’ different perceptions of the use of their own language of socialization (De Houwer, 1998; 2006; 2015).
However, very few studies have been conducted to examine the link between bilingualism and child well-being (De Houwer, 2015). Thereby, the first objective of our study is to observe the linguistic practices of bilingual parents and the life satisfaction of children as well as the impact of these practices on the use of the minority language by the child. Our second objective is to observe the relationship between parental language representations and children’s life satisfaction. This research work concerns 71 students, including 42 bilingual students aged 10 to 11, schooled in fifth grade classes. In this study, we administer life satisfaction and vocabulary scales to children and questionnaires to children and parents. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) did not identify the effect of parents’ language strategies on children’s life satisfaction scores. The link between parental linguistic representations and the general life satisfaction score was tested with a correlation analysis, which did not reveal any relationship between these two variables. Finally, our descriptive analyses showed a relation between parents’ language practices and the use of minority language by children. These results can be explained in part by a few methodological limitations that we have encounter during the conduct of this research work: a small sample size, unfavorable procurement conditions, non-exhaustive study.
References :
Abdelilah-Bauer, B. (2006). Le défi des enfants bilingues : Grandir et vivre en parlant plusieurs langues. Paris : La découverte.
De Houwer,A. (1998). Environmental factors in early bilingual development: The role of parental beliefs and attitudes. In G. Extra, & L.Verhoeven (Eds.). Bilingualism and migration (pp.75–96). New York : Mouton de Gruyter
De Houwer, A. (2006). Le développement harmonieux ou non harmonieux du bilinguisme de l’enfant au sein de la famille. Langage et société, 116(2), 29.https://doi.org/10.3917/ls.116.0029
De Houwer, A. (2015). Harmonious bilingual development: Young families’ well-being in language contact situations. International Journal of Bilingualism, 19(2), 169‐184. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006913489202
Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingualism: Life and reality. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Hélot,C. (2007). Du bilinguisme en famille au plurilinguisme à l’école. Paris (France) : L’Harmattan.
Nocus, I., Florin, A., Lacroix, F., Lainé, A., & Guimard, P. (2016). Les effets de dispositifs de prévention des difficultés langagières dans des contextes monolingues et plurilingues. Enfance, 1, (1), 113-133. doi :10.4074/S0013754516001087.
Key-words:
Bilingualism: bilinguisme
Through: par, à travers
Uspstream : en amont
As well as : ainsi que
Scale : echelle
Life satisfaction : satisfaction de vie
Well-being: bien-être