Heritage Language Media Consumption in Multilingual Families: A Closer Look

• Author / Creator

  Khepar, Anusha

• Media, such as television, music, and books, are integral to most modern households. Hence, it can significantly influence children’s home learning environment. For multilingual migrant parents interested in passing on their heritage language and culture to their children, media can be a powerful medium. This research study explored whether heritage language media use is facilitated by the following factors: family language background, family structure, and family heritage language perceptions. We retrospectively executed a causal-comparative quantitative analysis on interviews with parents of multilingual kindergarteners in Montréal, Canada. The results determined that family valuation of the heritage language had a statistically significant relationship with heritage language media use in the household. These results contribute to understanding multilingual family language policy, heritage language development and maintenance.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Family Language Policy
  • Heritage Language Maintenance
  • Technology
  • Multilingual Families
  • Migrant Families

• Graduation date

  Spring 2024

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-0k64-vk81

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.