This paper describes an exploratory evaluation of the Peers Early Education Partnership ‘Room to Play’, an innovative and experimental ‘drop‐in’ service seeking to attract and engage ‘hard‐to‐reach’ families in one of the most deprived areas of a Midlands city. Located in a shop unit of a busy community shopping centre, it offers play and learning activities for children, and provides opportunities for parents to talk to practitioners in a neutral and supportive environment. Through a mixed methods design, the authors attempted to document the core components of a potential transferable model of intervention, within challenging research constraints.

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While there have been reviews over the past decade of studies examining secondlanguage (L2) acquisition and also emergent literacy development, these related bodies of knowledge have not generally been considered together in relation to the education of very young English-language learners. This paper attempts to do so in a selective manner by proposing a preliminary conceptual framework for second language emergent literacy development, thus paving the way for future research. The literature on the emergent literacy of native English speakers is first outlined, followed by a discussion of the general effects of bilingualism and cross-linguistic transfer, with the special case of Hong Kong children serving as an illustrative example. Finally, potential environmental influences are explored, with a focus on the home literacy environment.