Parental understandings of bilingualism in the Polish community in Australia

The study’s aim was to assess the attitudes of Polish-background carers towards the value of community language maintenance and bilingualism, their knowledge of those issues, and the relationship between these two variables. It also aimed to identify topics related to raising children bilingually that are of interest to immigrant carers. A five-part questionnaire was distributed to Polish-background parents and grandparents living in four capital cities in Australia. A total number of 118 carers returned the questionnaires. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient, and thematic analysis for the qualitative part of the instrument. The carers in the study held very positive attitudes towards bilingualism and maintaining the Polish language. However, the research demonstrates that the relationship between immigrant carer attitudes towards various issues of raising children bilingually and their actual knowledge on those issues is likely to be weak. It warns that it may be difficult to predict if increasing immigrant carers’ knowledge in this area will improve their attitudes and result in higher language maintenance and bilingualism levels. The participants wanted to learn specific methods and techniques of language transmission, strategies to motivate children to learn and use the community language and useful language teaching aids.