How lockdowns helped kids learn the languages their parents speak

 It is well known that the more you surround yourself with a language the more you are able to understand and learn new words and sentences. This is what happened to children in Norway who, forced in close proximity with their parents, they were were to pick up or improve their mother tongue. The article in "The Conversation" by Liquan Liu summarises briefly how his research with 200 multilingual children in Norway showed that the pandemic helped multilingual children to improve their home language.  

Multilingual children rarely use all their languages in the same contexts or with the same frequency. This is often perceived as being more or less “advanced” in one language than the other, but in reality multilingual speakers use their languages as best fits their needs. Our study found children’s home language literacy improved during the pandemic. However some parents were worried about the development of kids’ societal language, especially when it was not spoken at home. This was disproved by this study as it was shown that when the children returned to kindergarden their "[societal language] came back for the kids as easily as restarting to ride a bike". This showed that societal language is often strong in young children so the key task for many multilingual families is not so much to find a balance between the two languages, but to make sure the home language is being actively used and not being overshadowed by the societal language.

This study strongly believed in the Family Language Policy in which three factors are the most important for the child's languages development trajectories. These three factors are language beliefs, language practices and language management. Language beliefs represent the attitudes and ideologies surrounding the home language (HL) any additional languages in the family and community so if they are positive or negative. Language practise consist of the choice of caretakers about the use of language at home. For example some families might have a one-person-one-language belief or they might switch languages throughout the day. Language management is about how the parents react to the child's language usage. For example a caretaker could choose not to react to their child's words if they use the wrong language in that situation. 

I have read their research paper to understand what methods they used to come to their conclusions.

193 multilingual families participated in this study and these families were able to join this study via social media posts, social network in public libraries both in English and Norwegian. Almost 75% of the families answered in English. The final sample only consisted of 188 families as the remaining families were excluded as the children had special learning needs or developmental conditions. A total of 45 languages was represented in the data ; 56% of the families used Norwegian at home in addition to other languages. When it comes to the language practices caretakers chose to use with their children, 53% of the families reported using the OPOL strategy (each parents speak to their children in their dominant language), 30% reported mixing languages with their children, and the remaining 17% were a single-language household. The majority of caretakers had higher education (73 % had at least a Master’s degree, 23 % had a PhD degree, and the remaining 4 % had a Bachelor’s degree or less). The background information allowed us to explore age and the presence of Norwegian at home in our analysis.

The survey is an adapted version of the questionnaire designed for the UK and Ireland by Ludovica Serratrice and colleagues, which had been conducted there prior to the current study, and which we were granted permission to use. The survey consists of three sections : beliefs, practices, management and impact. The first section was about the targeted caretakers’ beliefs concerning, and attitudes toward, multilingualism, mapped by their (dis)agreeing to statements. Answers were collected on a 5-point Likert scale rating level of importance. These variables reflect caretakers’ identity and beliefs related to aspects of multilingualism, such as maintaining contact with family abroad in the HL or the importance of HLs and OLs (Other languages) for school and future career. The second section was information on language use in the family during the lockdown and social distancing measures. Answers were given on a 5-point Likert scale rating the level of frequency of different activities. These variables reflect caretakers’ language practices and activities in each language. The third section was about the caretakers’ perceptions of the impact of school closures and social distancing measures on language use in their families (and in the different languages). Answers were given on a 5-point Likert scale rating level of disagreement. They were particularly interested in changes in the use of their languages before and after the lockdown (like reading, writing, recreational activities).

The first section showed positive attitudes towards multilingualism in this sample of families, as shown by the high ratings towards multilingualism in the variables reflecting identity and beliefs. Caretakers' value of maintaining communication with family members abroad was a predictor of frequent literacy practices in the HL, as well as of families’ perception of multilingualism as a source of well-being. The positive attitudes to and around multilingualism might have influenced the overall positive impact of the lockdown, as positive attitudes have shown to be important factors to maintain HL and to promote language learning.

The second section showed that families who are likely to encourage literacy practices in Norwegian also seem to do so in the other HL. This result is supported by the overall caretakers’ ratings on the value of reading and writing in the other language. It seems that whether families choose an OPOL strategy, or a more relaxed approach to mixing languages, promoting the use of HLs through various activities is crucial for language maintenance. It also showed that families who relied on online sources for activities for the children tended to encourage the usage of technology in both the HL and additional language

The third section showed that the overall trend that spending more time at home with their children meant increased use of, and exposure to, the HL. Changes were not only found in the HL, we found an association between the different activities involving Norwegian, such as reading and writing, and a positive effect of the lockdown in Norwegian.

“My son (…) is a bit behind the level of the class. He really improved his Norwegian reading during the lockdown, since we had more time to individually support him in a positive way. Before he was much more negative.”

However there was a discrepancy between families for which Norwegian is a primary language at home, versus families where it is not. So social distancing measures did not only affect people’s ability to socialize but it potentially impacted linguistic and cultural access of migrant groups in different countries and thereby their inclusion in society.

“Our primary exposure to Norwegian language is through work and the barnehage (‘preschool’). We [use] 100 % spoken English at home. The closures have negatively impacted the entire family’s ability to learn and use more Norwegian language.”

English plays an important role in this study, English is usually introduced to children from an early age in Norway and it is not uncommon for parents to mainly use English with their children. When we split the data across Norwegian, English and other languages, activities like watching TV, playing videogames or using the internet are more likely to occur in English than any other language.

“My kids have started using more English in their Norwegian speech with Parent 1 and each other during lockdown, because they are watching more YouTube and playing Minecraft, Animal Crossing and Zelda. Words from the games are difficult to translate into Norwegian.”

Overall positive attitudes towards HL and general well-being around multilingualism are heavily associated with linguistic outcomes in the HL. Technology also  played a role in the lockdown as children and families were able to communicate in their native language to family abroad.