Guideline 7: “Golden Rules” for parents, which allow children a successful early
immersion experience
The attitude shown by parents has an important effect on their children’s learning progress.
For the school context, for example, many studies have demonstrated an intimate
relationship between parental expectations and the actual academic achievements
of their children (e.g. Eccles et al. 1983, McGrath & Repetti 2000). For the preschool
context, it is likewise known that children unconsciously conform to their parents’ attitudes
and that a positive parental attitude positively affects the (language) learning
progress (see e.g. Mushi 2000, López 2005). For foreign language learning, the results
from Canadian research clearly show that children are successful in early immersion
programmes when their parents are enthusiastic about immersion and believe in the
programme, when they work together with the preschool teachers, when they take an
interest in what the child tells them about the programme, and when they take part in
preschool activities (e.g. Fortune & Tedick 2003). At home, parents are advised to
(verbally) interact with their children in the mother tongue, and to read to their children
in the mother tongue on a regular basis because numerous studies have shown
that reading activities at home are an important predictor for later academic success in
school (e.g. Fan & Chen 2002, Flouri & Buchanan 2004). Since the preschool provides
a lot of input in the L2, the role of the parents as role models for the L1, which needs
to be fostered at home, is all the more important. Practical experience in bilingual preschools
has shown that it is not necessary for parents to drill the L2 at home. Parents
may encourage their children to use the L2, but should not make them produce the L2
for friends or family members if the child does not want to (e.g. Schilk et al. i. pr.).