Women and language transmission in immigrant households. Impacts, challenges and opportunities

Abstract

It is acknowledged that linguistic practices within the family context are a key factor in language transmission (or non-transmission) from parents to children. In immigrant households with children and young people schooled in Catalan, the daily use of this language is linked to the degree of education and linguistic competence of the parents. This article reflects on the role of the mother figure in this linguistic scenario. At the same time, it tackles the experientialissues that affect mothers and children when mothers do not understand or speak Catalan or when comprehension difficulties remain unresolved. The data are the result of a small-scale exploratory research study on mothers and daughters. The participants are twelve North African and Latin American women who moved to Lleida more than a decade ago. They have different educational profiles and diverse commands and knowledge of Catalan. Four of them are mothers who are trying to develop their own personal projects. The remaining eight are young women who have just entered college and their mothers. The results, obtained through an open-ended questionnaire, highlight the need to investigate and identify the constraints and resulting problems of being able or not to use Catalan. In addition, they confirm the crucial role of mothers and of their command of Catalan on the use of this language at home and on its transmission to young people in the family context. The informants also provide useful arguments to convince unmotivated immigrant mothers to learn the language.

Keywords: intergenerational language transmission between immigrant mothers and daughters, undergraduate women of immigrant origin, learning and use of Catalan.