ANN THERESE, MARIT, TORE, YULIA & NATALIA . PHOTO: TORE BENTZ.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Research team:<\/strong>\u00a0Yulia Rodina<\/a>,\u00a0Natalia Kukarenko<\/a>,\u00a0Ann Therese Lotherington<\/a>,\u00a0Tore Nesset<\/a>,\u00a0Antonella Sorace<\/a>,\u00a0Marit Westergaard<\/a><\/p>\n Funding sources:<\/strong>\u00a0Regional Research Fund of North Norway<\/a>\u00a0– a branch of the\u00a0Research Council of Norway<\/a>(RCN) 2010\/2011, and\u00a0Troms\u00f8 Research Foundation<\/a>2011\/2012.<\/p>\n This project investigates the language situation of bilingual Norwegian-Russian children living in Troms\u00f8. The project is a result of collaboration between CASTL,\u00a0Universitetet i Nordland<\/a>\u00a0(Ann Therese Lotherington), and\u00a0Northern (Arctic) Federal University<\/a>\u00a0(Natalia Kukarenko). It\u00a0is thus unique in its multidisciplinary approach, combining the social sciences with the humanities. The main focus is on studying linguistic properties of bilingual immigrant children\u2019s language use as well as the social and political aspects of their situation.<\/p>\n In 2011 the research team worked on a pre-project funded by the Regional Research Fund of North Norway. This is a pilot study investigating a selection of Norwegian-Russian children, their parents and other caregivers, in order to build an empirical basis that will serve as a starting point for a larger project on the same topic.<\/p>\n In 2011 the social science dimension (Natalia Kukarenko and Ann Therese Lotherington) carried out a statistical analysis of the immigrant population in North Norway and the Troms\u00f8 area in particular. The analysis shows that in 2011 the Russian-speaking group was the largest immigrant group in the two northernmost counties, Troms and Finnmark, and that Russians constitute the largest labor immigrant group in the city of Troms\u00f8. The social science dimension also focused on studying the attitudes, motivation, and challenges of the parents of\u00a0Norwegian-Russian\u00a0children. These issues were addressed in interviews with the parents and the teacher of Russian working in the Russian Language Sunday School. The results of this investigation will be presented at the\u00a011th Nordic Conference on Bilingualism\u00a0<\/em>14-16 June, 2012 Copenhagen (Kukarenko and Lotherington ‘Unrecognized (Linguistic) Work: Russian Mothers in Norway’).<\/p>\n The linguistic dimension (Yulia Rodina and Marit Westergaard) focused on studying the acquisition of grammatical gender in Norwegian and Russian by two groups of bilingual children, those growing up with one and those who have two Russian-speaking parents. The results of this pilot study show that the transparency of the gender system in the target language and the amount of parental input that the children receive in their minority language affect the acquisition process. These results also suggest that bilingual children with only one parent speaking the minority language are in a vulnerable situation linguistically and need the most support in order to maintain their bilingualism. The results of this study have been submitted for\u00a0publication in\u00a0LiMA volume on Multilingualism\u00a0<\/em>(Rodina and Westergaard. \u2018Two gender systems in one mind: The acquisition of grammatical gender in Norwegian-Russian bilinguals\u2019).<\/p>\n The project continues in 2012, investigating a larger group of\u00a0Norwegian-Russian\u00a0children and their parents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bilingual Immigrant Children in North Norway: The Norwegian Welfare Society and the Language of Norwegian-Russian Children ANN THERESE, MARIT, TORE, YULIA & NATALIA . PHOTO: TORE BENTZ. Research team:\u00a0Yulia Rodina,\u00a0Natalia Kukarenko,\u00a0Ann Therese Lotherington,\u00a0Tore Nesset,\u00a0Antonella Sorace,\u00a0Marit Westergaard Funding sources:\u00a0Regional Research … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/castl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/04\/bic-007.jpg\")
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