The Relationship of Language Brokering to Academic Performance, Biculturalism, and Self-Efficacy among Latino Adolescents

Abstract

Children who interpret for their immigrant parents are referred to as language brokers. The present study examines the relationship of language brokering to academic performance, biculturalism, academic self-efficacy, and social self-efficacy. The many adultlike experiences of children who broker on a regular basis suggest that their cognitive and socioemotional development may be accelerated relative to children of immigrant families who broker infrequently or not at all. Latino adolescents (n = 122) from immigrant families were participants in the study. Results showed that, as expected, language brokering was positively related to biculturalism, and in turn, both of these variables were positively related to academic performance. In addition, the strongest predictor of academic performance was academic self-efficacy. Results also indicated that, to some degree, language brokering is a gendered activity, with females reporting more brokering than males.

A Longitudinal Daily Diary Study of Family Assistance and Academic Achievement Among Adolescents from Mexican, Chinese, and European Backgrounds

“…For example, youth from immigrant families often act as interpreters for their parents and help with the translation of official documents (Buriel et al 1998;Orellana et al 2003). Similarly, adolescents from Latin American and Asian backgrounds spend a significant amount of time caring for their siblings and doing household chores such as cooking and cleaning (Fuligni et al 1999;Hardway and Fuligni 2006).…”

Deaf Mothers, Maternal Thinking and Intersections of Gender and Ability

“…To do this work, they, through their everyday experiences, voiced how they did not want their hearing children to be interpreters for them. This connects with scholars who have studied immigrant parents and how they are often put in similar positions where their children, whose native language is English, act as interpreters for them (Buriel et al 1998). As with the immigrant families, the Deaf mothers in this study were doing the political work of negotiating their identities as part of a larger linguistic, ethnic or cultural minority.…”

Transnacionales Convirtiéndose en Docentes de Inglés en México: Efectos de la Mediación Lingüística y la Formación de la Identidad

“…Language brokering occurs when immigrant parents rely on their bilingual children to translate or interpret any given circumstance, whether spoken or written, since the parents are not speakers of the country's native language (Buriel, Perez, Dement, Chavez, & Moran, 1998;Love & Burial, 2007;Morales & Hanson, 2005;Villanueva & Buriel, 2010;Weisskirch & Alatorre, 2002). Language brokering is the communication process where "individuals with no formal training (often children of immigrant families) linguistically mediate for two or more parties (usually adult family members and individuals from mainstream culture)" (Kam, 2011, p 455).…”

“…This use thus makes the children take on the face of the family (Buriel, Perez, Dement, Chavez, & Moran, 1998;Hanson & Morales, 2005;Love & Burial, 2007;Villanueva & Buriel, 2010;Weisskirch & Alatorre, 2002). In spite of the aforementioned, at home, parents often have a contradictory rule of first language only.…”