“Mom talk:” Study finds bilingual immigrant Latina mothers have bilingual personalities

Children who hear a language other than English at home currently make up more than 25% of the school-age population in the United States. A large majority of these children hear Spanish because it is their parents’ native language. When their parents arrived in the United States, they brought with them not only their language, but also their culture.

Cultures vary in the way parents interact with their children. Thus, children of immigrant parents may experience different cultural practices regarding parent-child conversation than children of U.S.-born parents, and these cultural practices shape the skills and behaviors they bring with them when they enter school.

To better understand second-generation immigrants in the United States, particularly in South Florida, researchers at Florida Atlantic University explored how culture shapes language use with children. They compared “Mommy Says” during toy play with foreign-born Spanish monolingual Latina mothers, foreign-born Spanish-English bilingual Latina mothers, and US-born English monolingual European American mothers. -Americans and their 2.5 year old children born in the United States.

For the study, researchers recorded mothers in conversation with their children (the bilingual Latina mothers were recorded twice, once in Spanish and once in English), then examined the amount of maternal speech, how mothers encouraged conversation in their children, children’s participation in the conversation. , and the relationship between the mother’s statements and those of the child.

They also tested whether heritage culture would be a source of observed differences in how bilingual mothers interacted with their children in English versus Spanish. Do bilingual mothers have two different cultures that they alternate between, making them more Latina when they speak Spanish and more European-American when they speak English?

Results, published in the Journal of Intercultural Psychology, have shown that they do. Bilingual immigrants retain their cultural practices in playful conversations with their children, especially when speaking in their original language. Bilinguals change cultural practices when they change languages, and these effects of changing culture and cultural frame, as it is called, extend to language use with young children.

“Our results show that it’s really heritage culture that changes behavior and it’s not about being in Latin America or the United States,” said author Erika Hoff, Ph.D. principal and professor in the Department of Psychology at FAU. Charles E. Schmidt College of Science.

“It’s the same mother and child, but they are different depending on whether they “turn on” the Spanish switch or “turn on” the English switch. In fact, it is more of a dimmer on cultural practices, because the degree to which mothers are Latino or European-American may vary. Additionally, we found that immigrant mothers are increasingly more American in their discussions with their children depending on the duration of their lives in the United States, even when they speak Spanish.”

The nature of the difference between the Latin American style and the European-American style lies in the balance between the speech of the mother and that of the child. Monolingual Spanish-speaking Latina mothers talked more and asked fewer questions of their children, and their children talked less compared to monolingual English-speaking European American mothers and their children.

Conversations in Spanish and English between bilingual mothers and their children also differed in the ratio of adult to child speech. This suggests that children of Latina immigrant mothers in the United States are socialized to speak less.

“In Latin America, adults don’t elicit conversation from young children to the same extent as middle-class European and American mothers do,” Hoff said.

“Actually, that’s not the culture in many places. So when you ask Latino mothers to sit with their 2.5 year olds and play with toys or read a book , you get more “mommy” lyrics and less »

Children in Latino families should show respect for others by behaving in a way that is not disruptive to the group and by listening to adults. And compared to children of European American mothers, it is. In contrast, children of European American families are encouraged to express their individuality.

“Children of Latino mothers are socialized to use language a little differently than children of European-American mothers. They are socialized to listen more and speak less, even in their interactions in English,” Hoff said.

“I would advise teachers and those who assess children from immigrant families not to make the same assumptions as they would for children from monolingual English-speaking families born in the United States. They will not be as talkative, and this will not be the case. It’s not because they know less. or are less capable. It’s because that’s what they were taught.