AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

The aim of this research was to explore gender related environmental factors that relate to bilingual childrearing. De Houwer s theoretical framework was used in order to investigate the relationships between three components: parental attitudes, their linguistic input and the children s linguistic competence. 62 parents, 31 mothers and 31 fathers, who lived in Norway and raised their children bilingually in Norwegian and English, participated in the study. The participants were a quite specific group, since all the parents were highly educated, had positive attitudes, were deeply involved in bilingual childrearing, and supported the transmission of the minority language. The data were gathered by way of questionnaires in English and Norwegian. The results revealed that the more linguistic input child gets, the more linguistic competent he/she becomes. An increased input of English improves both the Norwegian and English competence of the children. Only one significant gender related difference between mothers and fathers was found: The more activities the mothers engage in with the child, the better Norwegian competence the child has.