Multilingual upbringing as portrayed in the blogosphere : on parent-bloggers' profile

Abstract

This article presents the results of an online survey completed by an international group of parents who write about their multilingual upbringing experience on personal blogs. As the first stage in a multi-case study that aims at characterizing multilingual parenting styles and strategies, the web questionnaire was designed to build the profile of the participants based on their demographic and linguistic background, their blogging practices, and their family’s linguistic situation. The literature review discusses the prevalence of multilingual child rearing and endorses parent-blogging both as a genre and as a potential research data source. The methodology, on the other hand, introduces the participants, as well as the survey design procedure. Results derive from the identification of salient themes, summarized in two preliminary categories: parents’ views on being bi-/multilingual and parental insights on multilingual upbringing strategies. The descriptive-interpretive analysis of the responses indicates that parents’ understanding of multilingualism influences their self-concept as language users and their being bloggers. Moreover, parents’ capacity to adopt and adapt communication strategies is deemed an important factor for successful early multilingualism. In general, the findings are treated as the starting point to examine the role of parent-blogging in promoting multilingualism and delve into multilingual parenting styles.