An Investigation of the Relationship between Social, Economic, and Cultural Capital of the Family and Farsi Language Learning by Azeri Children

The economic, social, and cultural assets of the family play an important role in the development of children's human capital, and they will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the learning of the second language by the children of the family. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the families’ social, economic, and cultural capital and Farsi language learning by Azeri children. Regarding the purpose, the present study was an applied one. Regarding the method, descriptive statistics were used. The sample of the present research includeds parents of Azeri preschool children in various areas of Tabriz city, and the sample size was determined according to Morgan’s table to be 155 people. Random sampling was used, and data collection method was questionnaire based. The results of the study demonstrated that there is a positive significant relationship between economic, social, and cultural capital of the family and Farsi language learning by Azeri preschool children. The more second-language learning in preschool is reinforced by social, economic, and cultural capital, the better children will perform during school. Thus, to improve bilingual children’s performance families’ above-mentioned capitals should be enhanced. Extended Abstract The family, as the most important social institution, plays an important role in institutionalizing language learning in children. Bilingualism has raised issues for education systems that need to be accounted for through careful and comprehensive scrutiny. The economic, social and cultural capital of the family is an important factor in the growth and development of the human capital of children. Investigations on first and second language acquisition, the methods of learning and teaching languages, and the role language plays in the structure of the society have always been a major educational research topic in bilingual countries. The importance of this leading issue has recently been captured by the Ministry of Education and many senior policy makers of Iran because of the country’s geographical position. Iran as a vast and ethnically diverse country enjoys the presence of several folks speaking and communicating in their native languages. Therefore, in such communities there are a great number of bilingual children whose effective training hinges largely on educating them to learn not only the official language of the country but also their own native languages.  Since the official language in Iran is Farsi, almost all of the families emphatically accentuate the importance of learning this official language before their children’s entrance to the primary levels of education. The family environment has a great impact on the development of children's language skills. This trend, undoubtedly, pictures the educational environment of the schools in Iran. One of the factors that has a lot to do with language learning is the classroom. In the classroom, information is provided in language by the teacher, and the student must demonstrate that he or she has learned the information using the language. Almost all of the teaching courses in Iran, in all levels, are being taught in Farsi and the children in order not to face the educational upsurges must have a clear understanding of the language being used in the classes. According to some studies, this skill makes children quite capable to overcome the educational problems they might possibly encounter during their studies and to be able to adapt to classroom conditions. What is rather fascinating, in this ground, is the interesting relationship between the social, cultural and economic capital of the families and their children’s educational success. Based on the latest studies, children who are competent language users and they have more capital, are obviously more successful in their studies, have the privilege of being raised in a family rich in social, economic, and cultural capital. In this regard, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between social, economic, and cultural capital of the families and Farsi language learning by Azeri children. Therefore, the principles of various linguistic structures and capitals are presented as comprehensively and inclusively as possible. These principles were the theoretical foundations of research. Regarding the purpose, the present study was an applied one. Regarding the method, descriptive statistics were used. The sample of the present research included parents of Azeri preschool children in various areas of Tabriz city, and the sample size was determined according to Morgan’s table to include 155 people. Random sampling was used, and data collection method was questionnaire based. The results of the study demonstrated that there is a positive significant relationship between economic, social, and cultural capital of the family and Farsi language learning by Azeri preschool children. Therefore, the child-parent interaction, the degree of interest and intimacy between the child and parents, and the quality of the relationship between them are considered as social capital and the greater the family's cultural capital, the greater the children's language skills and language learning.  Moreover, there is a close relationship between cultural capital of the family and Farsi language learning by Azeri preschool children. Therefore, to the extent that second language learning in preschool is reinforced by social, economic and cultural capital, children will perform better during school and have a successful educational experience. In other words, the best way to improve the performance of bilingual children is to raise the above-mentioned capitals. One of the limitations of this study related to limitations of the research tool which was a questionnaire. Also, since the statistical population of this study included parents of Azerbaijani preschool children in Tabriz, the findings are not generalizable to other parents. Therefore, doing research on other communities as well as comparing the results can provide greater generalizability.