Developmental Perspectives on Parents' Use of Discourse Strategies with Bilingual Children

Abstract

This chapter revisits Elizabeth Lanza's seminal ideas (1988, 1992, 1997b) on parents' use of discourse strategies with bilingual children. Her work showed how parents can affect two-year-olds' language choice through the way they interact with them. We add a developmental perspective by reviewing the application of Lanza's bilingual family interaction model (BIFIM) in studies of bilingual parents' interaction with children aged 1 to 12. However, following the transactional model of child development, not only do parents affect their children, but children also affect their parents. This highlights children's agency as a factor, which in turn relates to their level of maturity. We also consider how bilingual parents' language awareness and language-related impact beliefs may influence the way they interact with their children. Finally, we investigate the extent to which research findings on BIFIM have been disseminated as advice in bilingual parenting resources.