Bilingual families and the home literacy environment

An examination of English and ethnic language activities and outcomes

Bibliographic Data

ID21444755
AuthorsBeth A O’Brien (0000-0002-1187-5908, Centre for Research in Child Development, National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University Singapore, corresponding author), Artika Arshad (Centre for Research in Child Development, National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University Singapore), Siew Chin Ng (0000-0003-1353-5971, S R Nathan School of Human Development Singapore University of Social Sciences Singapore)
Year2024
Volume47
Issue4
Pages580-600
Publication date2024-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Research in Reading (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-0423 • E-ISSN: 1467-9817
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9817.12465
OpenAlexW4400767813
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited30

Background Accumulating evidence shows that the home literacy environment (HLE) has a potent and early influence on children's language and literacy development. However, there is a more limited understanding of HLE and its contribution to children's outcomes for simultaneous bilingual children exposed to two languages at home, particularly in the Asian context. Methods In this study with 801 six‐year‐old bilingual learners, HLE and language and literacy outcomes were examined in two languages. Children were assessed in their receptive vocabulary, reading and spelling abilities for English plus their ethnic Asian language (Mandarin Chinese, Malay or Tamil) for a subsample of 374 children. Results Results from factor analyses suggest that HLE for each language within families had a different latent structure, with three to four factors for English ( parent involvement , parent habit , child exploration and shared reading ) and three factors for the Asian language ( parent involvement , parent habit and child interest ). Further path analyses show that shared reading had a negative contribution to English outcomes but a positive influence on Asian language outcomes. Conclusions Findings extend existing understanding of HLE structure for bilingual language learners from bilingual families. HLE components contributed differently to bilingual language outcomes, with positive contributions of child exploration to English outcomes and of parent habits including shared reading to Asian language outcomes. Negative relationships for shared reading to English outcomes are also evident and suggest that further research on the long‐term effects of HLE is needed

Bilingual education · Ethnic group · Family literacy · Home language · Linguistics · Literacy · Neuroscience of multilingualism · Pedagogy · Sociology · Anthropology · Child Development and Digital Technology · Education Systems and Policy · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology

Tools

Open DOI