Heritage Language Media Consumption in Multilingual Families: A Closer Look

Abstract

Media, such as television, music, and books, are integral to most modern households. Hence, it can significantly influence children’s home learning environment. For multilingual migrant parents interested in passing on their heritage language and culture to their children, media can be a powerful medium. This research study explored whether heritage language media use is facilitated by the following factors: family language background, family structure, and family heritage language perceptions. We retrospectively executed a causal-comparative quantitative analysis on interviews with parents of multilingual kindergarteners in Montréal, Canada. The results determined that family valuation of the heritage language had a statistically significant relationship with heritage language media use in the household. These results contribute to understanding multilingual family language policy, heritage language development and maintenance.