Johanne Paradis, from the University of Alberta, will be giving a talk entitled “Resilience and Vulnerability in the Arabic-English Bilingual Development of Syrian Refugee Children and Youth” on Thursday, March 27, 2025 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
In EDUC 120, Learning Commons Education Building | 3700 McTavish
For all bilingual children, individual variation in their bilingual development is modulated by multiple factors, in particular age and input factors. In comparison to other bilinguals with migration backgrounds, refugee children and youth are likely to have more adversity prior to resettlement, which poses challenges for their socioemotional development, and possibly their language development. Refugee children and youth are also first-generation migrants, meaning their acculturation process is more complex than for bilinguals born in the host country. This talk presents findings from a longitudinal study of Syrian refugee children and youth in three Canadian cities during the first five years post-resettlement. The focus is on factors determining successes and challenges in their development of their societal (English) and heritage (Arabic) languages, in particular, factors related to the refugee experience. Findings reveal both resilience and vulnerability in the bilingual development of refugee children and youth, and suggest they are a unique group of bilinguals in Canada.