| dc.description.abstract | This is a Master’s dissertation from Oslo and Akershus University College. In this masterthesis
i will study the parent role in the language environment of children in families with Persian
origin and what role the parents have in this environment. I also want to study whether the
development of the mother tongue forms the basis for the development of Norwegian as a
second language and thus for functional bilingualism.
Language is important in interaction with other people. It is important for human emotional,
social identity and intellectual development. Furthermore, it forms community with other
people. Children with a minority background will learn their native language and, in my
opinion, it is important that they feel it is useful to them. This happens when the children feel
interact with their parents, their family and relatives.
The research question said: «How is the language environment of children in families with
parents having Persian as their first language?»
I have chosen this research question for my master thesis because I think it is important for
employees in kindergarten in a diverse society to know something about how the language
environment in the families of the children varies in different cultures in Norway. This could
help improve how the children are received in kindergartens, it can increase the quality of
parent cooperation and it may affect positively how children learn Norwegian in the
kindergarten.
This thesis is based on phenomenological theory by Husserl (1900), Merleau-Ponty (1994),
Thornquist (2003), Haugen (2005), Birkler (2007), Kvale and Brinkmann (2009).
Other theories about children with minority-language backgrounds and bilingual development
are by Wong Fillmore (1991), Valvatne and Sandvik (2002), Gjervan (2006, 2008), Gjervan,
Andersen and Bleka (2006), Engen and Kulbranstad (2006), Sand (2006) and Chumak-
Horbatsch (2012).
The postcolonial perspective is inspired by Said (1978), Frantz Fanon (1961), Gandhi (1998),
Foucault (1999), Rhedding-Jones (2002, 2005), Andersen (2002), Morten (2003), Cannella and
Viruru (2004), Lens Taguchi (2004), Otterstad (2005), Spivak (2009), Otterstat og Rhedding-
Jones (2011).
My research is a qualitative research process. Qualitative research is well suited to gain insight into the informant's own experiences, thoughts and feelings. My purpose was from the beginning
to interview five parents with children between 2 and 6 years. It was important to me
that both or one of the parents were born in Iran and have Persian as the main language. It was
important that the parents had good contact with the staff in the kindergarten and could tell
about their experience of how their child used his or her language.
In the analysis section I present empirical data from my five informants. I point out the
similarities and differences that I found through interviews.
In the discussion section, I discuss the informants' answers during the interviews. My findings
are about my informants' experience of language use and language development in children
with minority language backgrounds. The findings can also be linked to theories, especially
regarding the consideration of children's choices, and viewing children as subjective
phenomena and point out the big role that kindergarten and parents play in the child's
development of both native and other languages.
In the sixth chapter I wrote about the findings in my survey. One of the findings is that parents
and kindergarten play a major role in the child's mother tongue development. Children's
socialization and language development depend on each other. Parents help the child to contact
other children and adults. With good social skills, children can build strong and rewarding
relationships and develop their language skills. Another finding is that mother tongue is of great
importance to children and is important for learning Norwegian. Minority-language children are
a resource for the kindergarten. When linguistic and cultural diversity is part of the day-to-day
work in kindergarten and school, one probably achieves something more important than
stimulating the development of linguistic awareness and expanding the children's image of the
world, namely to prevent opposites between majority children and minority children. Recent
findings are the consideration of the child's choice. When minority language children begin to
go to kindergarten and learn other languages, the child can decide in which language they want
to talk or decide to switch between two languages in different situations. In my survey, I got a
clear opinion that all the informants except one, want the children to learn Persian, but they also
want a good language development in norwegian. My findings show that both parents and
kindergarten play an important role in language development for both mother tongue and
Norwegian as second language. | en |
