Why do some parents invest time, money and resources in transmitting two or more languages to their children, while others do not? In addition to the family’s circumstances, the decision to raise a polyglot often lies in the parental language ideologies, or the beliefs and values they attach to different languages. Welcome to our sixth guest blog post for the LAIF project, where we continue exploring toopics on language awareness and ideologies through the experiences and research perspectives of our contributors. This time, we are happy to introduce Kaisa Pankakoski, who shares 19 reasons to raise a bilingual child.

In this blog, Kaisa explores why raising a child with two languages can be meaningful for children and their families. Her 19 reasons offer a starting point for reflecting on bilingual parenting and the place of different languages in children’s lives.

Thank you, Kaisa, for contributing to the LAIF project!

Parental language ideologies & parenthood

King et al. (2008: 911) define language ideology as ‘the underlying force in language practices and planning’. For multilingual families, these parental language ideologies drive the language choices families make.

Rather than being a passive set of beliefs, language ideology in family contexts acts as a driving force (Curdt‑Christiansen, 2013: 2; 2016: 695). Language ideology, or the goals, plans, intentions and beliefs about language development (Schwartz et al., 2013: 23), defined as a force rather than just a set of beliefs, indicates its active role.

Parental language ideologies intertwine with many aspects of parenthood. The decision to pass on a language is often tied to parents’ ideas about what counts as “good” or “bad” parenting (Curdt‑Christiansen, 2016: 696). For many, raising bilingual or multilingual children is a symbol of responsible, forward‑thinking parenting, viewed as a positive and desirable choice (King & Fogle, 2006: 697; King et al., 2008: 913).

Parents don’t make these decisions in isolation. Parental language ideology often reflects societal attitudes (King et al., 2008: 907), revealing the deep connections between public discourses and private family decisions. Relatives’ views (supportive or critical) can significantly influence a family’s language practices. Friends and extended family frequently have strong opinions about bilingual or multilingual upbringing (De Houwer, 2020: 18), adding yet another layer of pressure, encouragement, or expectation.

In my three studies among parents of bilingual and multilingual children, the parents based in Finland expressed very similar language ideologies to those investigated elsewhere in the world. The most common ideologies that came up in my studies were communication with extended family, and transmitting a child their heritage, identity and culture through a heritage language.

Why raise a bilingual child?

Below, I’ll introduce 19 language ideologies, or ideological motivations for language transmission, that I’ve come across in sociolinguistic research. These are the beliefs and ideas about language that inspire and motivate parents to raise their children bilingually or multilingually.

1. Communication with extended family

Most parents want their children to communicate with relatives in the heritage language they share (Bloch, 2024; Pankakoski, 2026).

2. Transmitting heritage, identity and culture

Parents identify as belonging to a group of speakers and imply that speaking all heritage languages is an essential part of one’s identity. Transmission of a heritage language therefore links you to your heritage and identity (Pankakoski, 2026; Ramonienė, 2013). Parents also value heritage languages because with language proficiency, also customs, culture, values, and traditions are transmitted (Bloch, 2024).

3. A good parenting choice

Transmitting a minority language (and/or a parent’s mother tongue) is often seen as ”good” parenting (King et al., 2008; Pankakoski, 2026; Suvanto, 2026). Many parents are inspired and encouraged by other families’ successful (or unsuccessful) language transmission (Pankakoski, 2026). Some parents see that it is in fact their responsibility to raise their child bilingually, and they take an active role in supporting their children’s language development (Bloch, 2024).

4. Future opportunities

Parents often choose to pass on a language because of its usefulness, functional value, and the benefits it might create later in life. They feel that languages open doors to future work or study opportunities and multilingualism gives advantage over monolingualism (Bloch, 2024; Frasure-Smith et al., 1975; Pankakoski, 2026).

5. Richness

Parents value multilingualism as a gift or treasure they wish to present to their children (Pankakoski, 2026; Ramonienė, 2013). A common ideology among parents is that the more languages the children know, the better; parents wish their children will become polyglots like themselves (Pankakoski, 2026).

6. Integration

For immigrant background families, all family members mastering the local language can be seen as key to successful integration, settling in, fitting into the local community, or feeling at home in a new country (Bloch, 2024; Frasure-Smith et al., 1975; Lyon, 1996).

7. Early exposure is best

Languages should be introduced from an early age as parents view that acquisition is easier and more efficient as a child (Pankakoski, 2026).

8. Increased cognitive abilities

This academically debated theme among parents is that multilingualism has cognitive benefits (Pankakoski, 2026).

9. A child has the right to their language

According to Article 30 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child has the right to use their own language (United Nations, 1989, Art. 30).

10. Revitalisation to support a minority language

Parents may see transmitting a minority language as their moral duty as a citizen from a specific region such as the Basque country. Preserving an endangered minority language can also be a form of everyday activism tied to identity and history (Bloch, 2022; Suvanto, 2026).

11. Purism discouraging loanwords and code-switching

Some parents discourage loanwords and code-switching. This purist language ideology values speaking a language “correctly” (Suvanto, 2026). Some parents even call themselves “language police”, encouraging children not to mix languages (Pankakoski, 2026).

12. Authenticity, which values dialects

Parents may value their own dialects as natural and meaningful ways of speaking; they are markers of native identity. Transmitting a parent’s own dialect strengthens the family’s linguistic belonging (Suvanto, 2026).

13. Personal convenience

Often parents choose to transmit a language they find easiest to express themselves in; this is usually their own mother tongue (Bloch, 2024).

14. Easier to travel

Visiting different areas of the world is easier if you speak the language (Frasure-Smith et al., 1975; Pankakoski, 2026). Speaking a parent’s language can make trips “back home” smoother, more meaningful, and far more comfortable for the child (Bloch, 2024).

15. Social prestige

Parents may make the decision to, for example, send their child to a non-home language school because of its prestige in society rather than necessity (Frasure-Smith et al., 1975).

16. Facilitating communication with the heritage language community in the country of residence

Speaking a heritage language can help children connect with others who share that language in their area of residence—for example, being able to communicate with the Hebrew-speaking community in Finland (Bloch, 2024).

17. Language superiority, the most beautiful language

Immigrant-background parents may prioritise preserving their language and culture for the next generation. This is sometimes influenced by national ideology (Bloch, 2024). Some parents may consider their mother tongue the most beautiful language of all, and more expressive than other languages, or “language of the soul” (Ramonienė, 2013: 138).

18. Language of emotion and closeness

The transmission of the mother tongue is seen as self-evident, instinctive and natural. Parents perceive their first language both as the language of emotions and closeness, enabling better emotional expression (Yates & Terraschke, 2013; Suvanto 2026).

19. Anti-majority language feelings

Many minoritised language groups have faced stigmatisation, negative attitudes, or oppression from the majority language speaking community. That is why some parents may feel negatively towards the majority language (e.g. English in Wales) because of the linguistic history of the area, or patriotic sentiments towards the oppressed language (Lyon, 1996).

The ideological motivations above motivate us, as parents, to support our children’s multiple languages and foster their language development. Many parents in academic studies describe a mix of the above ideological motivations to pursue multilingual language transmission. The ideologies are also closely connected.

Are you raising a bilingual child? Which ones of these language ideologies feel closest to your own? Or are you motivated by something else?

About the author

Kaisa Pankakoski is a research associate at Cardiff University in Wales.

Her children are trilingual (Finnish, English, and Welsh) and she set up the Finnish Saturday School in Cardiff in 2011 to support local Finnish immigrant background children’s language and identity development. Kaisa has lived, in addition to her native Finland and current home Wales, in Spain, France, Chile, and England.

Her research focuses on multilingual families. Her book entitled Multilingual Family Language Policy and Wellbeing: Language Ideologies, Strategies and Experiences, was published by Multilingual Matters Bilingual Education and Bilingualism series in July 2026. You can order it now with a 40% discount using the code MFLPW40 on the publisher’s page. The code is valid until 31/12/26:  https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/?K=9781800419643

She shares tips for parents of bilinguals and multilingualism research on her multilingual Instagram profile: https://www.instagram.com/monikielisetperheet/

References

Bloch, G. (2024). Language ideologies in transnational families with Israeli background Finland. Frontiers in Sociology, 9: 1453226.

Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2013). Family language policy: Sociopolitical reality versus linguistic continuity. Language Policy 12(1), pp. 1-6.

Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2016). Conflicting language ideologies and contradictory language practices in Singaporean multilingual families. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 37(7), pp. 694-709.

De Houwer, A. (2020). Why do so many children who hear two languages speak just a single language? Zeitschrift für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht 25(1), pp. 7-26.

Frasure-Smith, N., Lambert, W.E. and Taylor, D.M. (1975). Choosing the language of instruction for one's children: A Quebec study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 6(2), pp. 131-155.

King, K. A., Fogle, L. and Logan‐Terry, A. (2008). Family language policy. Language and linguistics compass 2(5), pp. 907-922.

King, K. and Fogle, L. (2006). Bilingual parenting as good parenting: Parents' perspectives on family language policy for additive bilingualism. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 9(6), pp. 695-712.

Lyon, J. (1996). Becoming bilingual: Language acquisition in a bilingual community. Multilingual matters.

Pankakoski, K., (2026). Multilingual Family Language Policy and Wellbeing: Language Ideologies, Strategies and Experiences. Multilingual Matters.

Ramonienė, M. (2013). Family language policy and management in a changed socio-political situation: Russians and Russian speakers in Lithuania. In: Schwartz, M. and Verschik, A. eds. Successful Family Language Policy. Springer, pp. 127-143.

Suvanto, T. (2026). Las ideologías lingüísticas en la política lingüística familiar: las experiencias de madres y padres euskaldunes en Finlandia y en el País Vasco. In A. Palacios & S. Gómez Seibane (Eds.) Lenguas en contacto: ideologías, actitudes, representaciones y construcciones identitarias. Iberoamericana/Vervuert, pp. 251–267.

United Nations (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child. New York: United Nations. Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child

Yates, L. and Terraschke, A. (2013). Love, language and little ones: Successes and stresses for mothers raising bilingual children in exogamous relationships. In: Schwartz, M. and Verschik, A. (Eds.) Successful family language policy. Springer, pp. 105-125.