How and Why Bilingualism is Being Promoted by Omani Parents and How Bilingualism is Impacting their Children’s Everyday Lives
Keywords:
bilingual education, early childhood bilingualism, early childhood education, language development, intergenerational relationsAbstract
Expectations of the globalized society and changes in family
dynamics have a significant impact on children’s development as
supported by the Ecological Systems Theory. Parents have become more
interested in raising their children as bilinguals as it has become an
inescapable trend, particularly in certain regions of the world. Children
of the Gulf are also affected by this bilingualism movement. Therefore,
this study attempts to understand the bilingual children of the Gulf in
the case of Oman by addressing three major research questions: (1)
“why and how bilingualism is being promoted by parents”, (2) “how
bilingualism is impacting on the intergenerational relationships in the
Gulf family”, and (3) “how bilingualism is impacting Gulf children's
everyday lives”. Participants were ten parents whose children were
enrolled at a bilingual education program at Sultan Qaboos University
(SQU). The data was collected through interviews and the case study
approach was deployed in data analysis. Findings were revealed about
why and how parents promote bilingualism, to what extent the
bilingualism impact on the intergenerational relations, and the effects of
bilingualism on children’s everyday lives. Implications and
recommendations for policy, practice, and research are offered.
https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.12.9
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