KICCE: Korea Institution of Child Care and Education/Research Around the World

Date	2013-05-31 17:32	Hit	3
● Title: A Study on the Development and Operation of Bilingual Support Programs for Parents and             Young Children of Multicultural Families  ● Researchers: Myung-Lim Chang, Hyunsuk Min, Sewon Lee, & Young-Shim Lim  ● Abstract:  The purpose of this study is to develop educational support programs for children of multicultural families by tapping into the bilingual and multicultural environment of these families. The study, in particular, focuses on developing bilingual programs that can be effectively utilized by parents. The ways to improve the efficiency of operation and delivery of the programs are also presented.  This study developed bilingual programs for women who immigrated to Korea from China and Vietnam for marriage purpose. As they show the highest birth rate among all non-Korean immigrants, it is a valid response to conduct such a study for these groups. To study the demand for bilingual programs, the paper conducted in-depth interviews with Chinese and Vietnamese wives who have young children, and experts and staff members of organizations that provide support programs to multicultural families.  According to the results of interviews, mothers of multicultural families have not been using their mother tongue to communicate with their children, and the children tend to refuse to talk to their mother when they were using their mother tongue. Some of them were unable to understand what kind of topics and materials they should use to teach their native language to their children. They wanted to teach children about the food, holidays, and culture of their homelands, and also expressed an inclination to learn ways of tutoring their children. Experts in the field of multicultural families pointed out that most of the current bilingual programs target elementary or middle-school students and use materials that only focus on language. They suggested that the young children of multicultural families should be able to learn not only the native language of their mother but also learn about the culture of her country of origin.  The study developed two sets of programs based on these needs. Set Ⅰ related to study support programs that can be commonly applied to any language. These programs help mothers to teach young children shapes, locations, colors, numbers, and other basic concepts, so that children can enhance their basic learning abilities and prepare for bilingual programs. Set Ⅰ programs consist of 10 sections, and each section includes two activities. Vocabulary cards with pictures were also provided. Set Ⅱ are bilingual programs that focus on cultural topics related to the mother’s country of origin; these programs deal with topics such as family (mom and dad, lullaby, birthdays, and grandparents), culture (food, holidays, national symbols, clothes, and games), and nature. Hands-on materials for activities such as drawing and games were presented so that young children can easily learn the culture and language of their mother’s country of origin.  Pilot programs were conducted with 20 Vietnamese mothers and 10 young children in collaboration with four organizations in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeongsangbuk-do. Six experts—researchers, bilingual instructors, and experts in early childhood education—also conducted activities over about 20 sessions. After the pilot programs, the contents and processes were revised and improved according to the feedback of participating mothers and experts.  This program will help the young children of multicultural families learn their mother’s native language and develop a healthy self-identity. The program is expected to have a number of positive effects on young children’s learning abilities and social and emotional development, as it provides parents with teaching guidelines, which enhances parents’ child-nurturing abilities, and increases children’s understanding of their parents’ culture, which helps to develop a more secured parent-child relationship.

     I chose this research project (title) because it gave me some great insight and facts like, how to conduct research, what data was used, and the risk/benefit equation, for example; researchers, participants, and why the research was performed.  Children are heavily represented among victims of research, as are other socially powerless groups, such as prisoners, the mentally disabled and those living in poverty.  The likelihood of being a research victim increases if one suffers from more than one of these vulnerabilities (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, Siraj-Blatchford, 2010).

 Reading some of the research topics (resources) from this website: KICCE, It has giving me a broader, and deepened my knowledge/ understanding on how important research can be for human development.