Parents’ Roles Toward Their Bilingual Kindergarten Children’s Language Learning: a case study

Abstract

This study examined parents’ involvements in their bilingual kindergarten children’s English learning at home. The participants of this study were two mothers and children of two families. The children were enrolled in a bilingual (English – Indonesian) kindergarten, and both mothers were multilingual speakers. A semi-structured interview and observations were conducted to collect the data. The mothers and children were interviewed separately, using different sets of questions but aimed for the same purpose. The results of this study indicated that in general both mothers played their roles as children’s first teacher, partner, motivator and facilitator, but in different frequency and consistency. However, the mother in the first family played her role as the first teacher and a motivator more actively than the mother in the second family did.