MULTILADA
DwuZam
Intentional bilingualism occurs when one (or both) parents choose to address their child in a language other than their mother tongue and other than the language of the community. For example, Polish-speaking parents who were born and raised in Polish monolingual families, although living with their families in Poland, choose to speak English to their children.
Aims of the project
In the project we will try to estimate how many families in Poland introduce intentional bilingualism. We will investigate the socio-economic, psychological, and linguistic environment of children raised in non-native bilingualism. We will find out what impact it has on children's linguistic, cognitive and emotional development.
Why is this important?
More and more families are introducing intentional bilingualism, especially in Eastern Europe and Asia. What we don't yet know is how this decision affects the family's life: its well-being and the child's linguistic and cognitive development. Our project is one of the first to be able to answer these questions.
Who will we invite to participate in the study?
We will be inviting parents practicing intentional bilingualism with their children between the ages of one year and about 10 years old (online questionnaire study). For an offline study with children and parents, we will be inviting families with children aged 3 to 6 years: monolingual, naturally bilingual (with a parent coming from an English-speaking country) and practicing non-native bilingualism. We plan to launch the study in the third or fourth quarter of 2025.
The project is conducted at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw
and financed by the National Science Center (SONATA 19 programme). Full title of the project: Parenting in a non-native language: quantity, quality, and consequences for child development (2023/51/D/HS6/02480).