Family Language Advice Service (FLAS)

Many families in the Ottawa area and beyond raise bilingual or multilingual children. Parents often have questions or concerns about what languages to speak to their children, what schools they should attend (e.g. English, French immersion, or French schools), or how to support languages with non-o icial status (e.g. heritage languages) in addition to English and/or French. Sometimes parents also face institutional challenges or ideologies (e.g. asked by teachers or other professionals to speak to their children only in the school language) or are influenced by common myths or misconceptions that children are “like sponges”, that bilingualism means perfect proficiency in two languages, or that mixing two or more languages in child utterances is a sign of low competence or a bad habit. The objective of this project is two-fold: 1) To collect authentic parental questions and concerns regarding bilingual or multilingual child upbringing and provide strategic, research-based advice to families. The Family Language Advice Service (FLAS) is nonclinical, non-judgemental, and non-prescriptive. Its aim is to provide parents with guidance and resources that would help families make their own choices about bilingual or multilingual upbringing and education. 2) To use the parental questions and concerns as data and analyze parental attitudes, beliefs, practices, and ideologies within the bigger picture of Canadian social, educational, and political structures.

This project uses a qualitative research approach. It collects data from parents through video/audio-recorded interviews and emails. The interviews are transcribed and together with the emails are added to a data corpus that is analysed through thematic analysis. Themes include successful strategies for supporting bi/multilingualism at home, school choices, cognitive benefits, identity and cultural benefits, pragmatic or monetary benefits, myths and misconceptions, linguistic hierarchies, etc. The project also provides a unique individualized response to each parental inquiry by answering specific questions with research-based recommendations, including specific strategies for home language use, school choice, community activities, etc. When possible, the responses also include specific additional resources (e.g. websites, blogs, podcasts, books, etc.) relevant to the parents’ interests.  

Schedule and/or conduct interviews (online or in-person), transcribe and anonymize video/audio recordings, organize database files, conduct thematic analysis using the Nvivo software, communicate with clients (parents), research/curate appropriate parental resources (e.g. websites, blogs, podcasts, books, etc.), write or review responses to parents, manage project website content, complete administrative tasks, etc. Note that depending on project flows and participant volume, not all of the above tasks may be available or appropriate for the student participating in this project. However, an e ort will be made to expose the student to a variety of tasks and activities, so as to maximize the new skills acquired. When possible, students will also be paired with more advanced RAs at the graduate level to receive mentorship.

• Initial project orientation and introductions: 1hr 
• Project meetings with professor and MA research assistants: 10 hrs 
• Conducting or observing interviews: 5 hrs 
• Transcription and verification: 20 hrs 
• Thematic analysis with Nvivo: 20 hrs 
• Reviewing or preparing responses to parents: 20 hrs 
• Curating resources for parents: 10 hrs 
• Project administration: 4 hrs 

Preferred semester: Fall 2026 or Winter 2027 

Work languages: English and/or French 

Assets: interests in languages or linguistics, personal bi/multilingual experiences, experience with additional languages.