Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T21:02:50.883Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Determinants of Bilingualism among Children

An Economic Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2020

By
Barry R. Chiswick  and
Marina Gindelsky
Edited by
Cécile B. Vigouroux  and
Salikoko S. Mufwene
Cécile B. Vigouroux
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
Salikoko S. Mufwene
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Get access

Summary

This paper uses the American Community Survey (ACS) (2005–2011) to construct a child-level dataset and explore the determinants of bilingualism for children (<=18) who were either born in the United States or immigrated before the age of 14. The model focuses on variables associated with exposure to a language other than English as the primary determinants of bilingualism among children. Parental proficiency in English, parental foreign birthplace, residence in a linguistic enclave, shared parental ancestry, and race/ethnicity are found to be the most important determinants of child bilingualism.

Keywords

Bilingualismimmigrantsancestrychild migrantsforeign-bornlanguage
Type
Chapter
Information
Bridging Linguistics and Economics , pp. 158 - 181
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bak, Thomas H., Nissan, Jack J., Allerhand, Michael M. & Dreary, Ian J.. 2014. Does bilingualism influence cognitive aging? Annals of Neurology 75: 959–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beckstead, Karen & Toribio, Almeida Jacqueline. 2003. Minority perspectives on language: Mexican and Mexican-American adolescents’ attitudes toward Spanish and English. In: Mi lengua: Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States, Research and Practice, ed. by Roca, Ana & Colombi, M. Cecilia, pp. 154–68. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Biedinger, Nicole, Becker, Birgit & Klein, Oliver. 2014. Turkish-language ability of children of immigrants in Germany: Which contexts of exposure influence preschool children’s acquisition of their heritage language? Paper presented at the Turkish Migration Conference on Comparative Perspectives and Continuities, Regent’s University, London.Google Scholar
Chiswick, Barry R. & Gindelsky, Marina. 2016. Determinants of bilingualism among children. Review of Economics of the Household, 14: 489–506.Google Scholar
Chiswick, Barry R., Lee, Yew Liang & Miller, Paul W.. 2005. Parents and children talk: English language proficiency within immigrant families. Review of Economics of the Household 3: 243–68.Google Scholar
Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W.. 2007. The Economics of Language: International Analyses. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W.. 2016. Does Bilingualism among the Native Born Pay? Discussion Paper 9791. Bonn, Germany: IZA Institute of Labor Economics.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feliciano, Cynthia. 2001. The benefits of biculturalism: Exposure to immigrant culture and dropping out of school among Asian and Latino youths. Social Science Quarterly 82: 865–79.Google Scholar
Feng, Li., Gai, Yunwei & Chen, Xiaoning. 2014. Family learning environment and early literacy: A comparison of bilingual and monolingual children. Economics of Education Review 30: 110–30.Google Scholar
Hidalgo, Margarita. 1993. The dialectics of Spanish language loyalty and maintenance on the U.S.-Mexico border: A two-generation study. In: Spanish in the United States: Linguistic Contact and Diversity, ed. by Roca, Ana & Lipski, John M., pp. 47–73. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Lutz, Amy & Crist, Stephanie. 2011. Why do bilingual boys get better grades in English-only America? The impacts of gender, language and family interaction on academic achievement of Latino/a children of immigrants. Ethnic and Racial Studies 32: 346–68.Google Scholar
Mejias, Hugo A., Anderson, Pamela L. & Carlson, Ralph. 2002. Attitudes toward Spanish Language Maintenance or Shift (LMLS) in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 158: 121–40.Google Scholar
Paradis, Johanne. 2007. Early bilingual and multilingual acquisition. In: Handbook of Multilingualism and Multilingual Communication, ed. by Auer, Peter & Wei, Li, pp. 15–44. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Pendakur, Krishna & Pendakur, Ravi. 2002. Language as both human capital and ethnicity. International Migration Review 36: 147–77.Google Scholar
Portes, Alejandro & Rivas, Alejandro. 2011. The adaptation of migrant children. Immigrant Children 21: 219–46.Google Scholar
Rumbaut, Ruben G. 2009. A language graveyard? The evolution of language competencies, preferences and use among young adult children of immigrants. In: The Education of Language Minority Immigrants in the United States, ed. by Wiley, Terence G., Lee, Jin Sook & Rumberger, Russell, pp. 35–71. Buffalo, NY: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Rumbaut, Ruben G., Massey, Douglas S. & Bean, Frank D.. 2006. Linguistic life expectancies: Immigrant language retention in Southern California. Population and Development Review 32: 447–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saiz, Albert & Zoido, Elena. 2002. The Returns to Speaking a Second Language, pp. 1–46. Working Paper. Philadelphia, PA: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×