Parents’ role towards children’s language choices and the benefits of learning languages as a family

Abstract

[eng] The fact that parents are a key figure in a student’s academic development has been widely proven over the last years. According to that, this study has the main purpose of examining the influence that a person’s family may have on their children’s decision of studying a language-related degree or not. By doing this, it seeks to demonstrate that those parents who have been involved in the language learning process have then in many cases –whether actively or passively– encouraged their children to study or not a language-related degree. With a view to solving this matter, a questionnaire has been sent to two different groups of parents: half of them parents of students enrolled in a degree related to languages and half of them parents of students who are not or have not studied a degree of this kind. The responses received from these two groups have then been analysed in accordance with various aspects such as parents’ formal education, language learning interest, participation in their children’s language learning processes and children’s academic training. In general terms, the results indicate that today parents are highly aware of the importance of learning languages and that, regardless of whether they like studying languages or not, they show willingness to contribute to their children’s language learning process. It is for this reason and taking into account the information collected that a didactic proposal with different activities will be included at the end of this dissertation to enhance parent’s involvement in their children’s study choices, especially regarding the learning of foreign languages.