Promoting communication practices about school activities in multilingual families

Although bilingual education shows positive effects on language competence and cognition (Bialystok 2017), troubles arise when neither language is developed beyond the level of primary socialization, as often happens with children of immigrant families (Cummins 2000): heritage languages are often used with limited sociolinguistic functions (Montrul 2008); and inadequate parental competence in the majority language hinders both parental involvement in academic practices at home, and thus the development of their children's CALP competence. Starting from these premises, the project Con parole mie (‘In my own words’) is aimed at promoting communication about homework assignments within immigrant families in Italian primary schools. The paper shows how enhancing the use of heritage languages can promote parental participation in homework interactions, and assist in training children in CALP-related practices.