A Qualitative Study Investigating Roles of Parents with Low and Middle SES in Supporting Their Children’s Foreign Language Development: Perspectives of Nine Advanced Learners
Keywords:
Roles of parents, advanced English learners, sociocultural context of language learning, English as a foreign language (EFL)Abstract
A wealth of literature on parental factors has seen a significant correlation between the family’s socio-economic status (SES) and learners’ linguistic performance. However, some learners from less privileged backgrounds still reach a high level of foreign language proficiency. In this study, the researcher conducted a qualitative case study to understand how nine advanced EFL college learners from low and intermediate SES families perceived the role and support their parents afforded in their English learning process. Data gathered in this study included a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and written narratives. A constant comparison method was employed to analyze the data collected. Participants in this study explicitly credited and attributed their language learning success to their parents, who acted as agents of change in locating, securing, and orchestrating various English learning resource, as well as served as learning cheerleaders/collaborators, nurturers/motivators, coercers, and role models while affording financial, social, cognitive, and emotional support to scaffold their children’s level of English proficiency. These supports are in accordance with the values and beliefs of the social, cultural, and historical contexts where the participants and their parents resided. The parents’ ability to come up with creative strategies, their attitude towards learning, and belief in learners offset the disadvantaged factors and account for their children’s FL learning success. Implications drawn from this study are to encourage parents from disadvantaged SES backgrounds to make use of available public resources, as well as to help them develop supporting strategies and identify agents to secure learning resources otherwise unattainable.
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