Resumen de Who decides the home language?: A look at multilingual families

Anne Tuominen

• In this paper, I look at how multilingual parents attempt to transmit and maintain their native languages at home with their children. The 18 multilingual Jamilies in my study spoke mostly English at home even when both parents shared the same non-English language äs their native language.

  Myfindings suggest that the children in these families are often the ones who decide what the family's home language will be. The parents' educational and socioeconomic statuses also influence the shift toward English language usage because poor and less-educated parents have few resources to help them with home language maintenance.