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ERIC Number: EJ1442492
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Nov
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0141-0423
EISSN: EISSN-1467-9817
Bilingual Families and the Home Literacy Environment: An Examination of English and Ethnic Language Activities and Outcomes
Beth Ann O'Brien; Artika Arshad; Siew Chin Ng
Journal of Research in Reading, v47 n4 p580-600 2024
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.
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A