Effects of home language input on the vocabulary knowledge of sequential bilingual children

Abstract

The current study examined whether the vocabulary skills of sequential bilingual children who learned Cantonese as a home language (L1) and English as a second language (L2) were predicted by the amount of L1 and L2 used at home. Ninety-two preschool children who learned Cantonese as L1 were recruited from a Head Start program. The amounts of L1 and L2 used at home were measured using parent questionnaires. Mixed patterns of L1 and L2 use were found across family members and home activities. After controlling for time spent in preschool, regression analyses showed that the amount of L1 and L2 used by individual family members, with the exception of older siblings, was not significantly linked to children's vocabulary skills. In contrast, the language used during some home activities such as dinner and book reading significantly predicted children's vocabulary knowledge. Implications for family involvement in facilitating children's vocabulary development are discussed.

Can family language policy predict linguistic, socio-emotional and cognitive child and family outcomes? A systematic review

“…Moreover, various studies in this systematic review support the assumption that exposure and management efforts also influence children in the cognitive domain (cf. Carlson and Meltzoff 2008;Cheung et al 2018;Gathercole et al 2010;Marchman, Fernald, and Hurtado 2010;Soveri, Rodriguez-Fornells, and Laine 2011). It should be noted, however, that our rather broad definition of cognitive outcomes (including for instance cognitive and self-control, literacy skills, conceptual vocabulary, school readiness …) resulted in a larger selection of studies demonstrating a link between the cognitive domain and practices and/or management.…”

“…Approaching the examined influencing factors (often age of acquisition, exposure, and proficiency) via the FLP framework, we could classify some of them as practices or management. Increased language input, for instance, is said to give children more opportunities to develop the cognitive processing skills needed for vocabulary learning (Cheung et al 2018;Marchman, Fernald, and Hurtado 2010). In addition, exposure to the minority and/or majority language at home (Carlson and Meltzoff 2008;Gathercole et al 2010) or the frequency of codeswitching (Soveri, Rodriguez-Fornells, and Laine 2011) might influence children's cognitive control.…”

“…Recordings and/or observationsCheung et al (2018) Classroom observations (to assess amount of IL & HL used by teachers)Danjo (2018) Observation and audio-recording of family interactions (parent-child and between siblings) over 16 months + classroom observations (children's verbal interactions)Parental and child interviewAltman et al (2014) Parent: background child and parent, child language acquisition, FLP (practices, management and attitudes parents) Child: FLP (e.g. reported language choice with parents and siblings, language use at home, frequency of CS) and self-rated language abilities (IL & HL)Danjo (2018) Semi-Structured parental interviews (focus on perception of practices and beliefs) and ethnographic parental and child interviews as part of daily conversations and during playtime (+ teacher interviews) verb picture naming, non-word repetition and complex syntax in sentence repetition -(IL & HL) Cheung et al (2018) Picture identification and picture naming tasks (IL & HL) -developed based on MCDI and CCDI-C Li and Tan (2016) Picture description task (oral language ability), Chinese character recognition task (HL) Parental questionnaire Cheung et al (2018) (linguistic) background/demographic information, IL-HL use by each family member, IL-HL use during home activities Li and Tan (2016) Home language and literacy environment questionnaire: demographic information, SES, children's language preference at home, parents' and children's Chinese language and literacy of family interactions (adult family members-child-siblings) over six months Howard et al (2014) Classroom observations Li (2006) Direct and participant home and school observations: focus on literacy activities, child language use and choice in different settings, interactional patterns with teachers and peers, use of or talk about home literacy experiences Parental interview Curdt-Christiansen (2016) Formal and informal interviews, focus on parental ideologies towards bilingual policy and perceived evaluation of different interview on FLP, (parental) language competences, challenges … Eisenchlas et al (2019) Semi-structured interview on background, family history, FLP, reflection on and evaluation of sojourning experience Li (2006) Informal conversations with parents + semi-structured interview: children's home literacy, parental beliefs and values of language learning, perceptions of schooling in Canada Linguistic assessments or tasks Howard et al (2014) Subset of Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery-Revised (IL & HL): Picture Vocabulary, Letter-Word Identification, Passage Comprehension Makarova, Terekhova, and Mousavi(2019) Russian language speech samples via picture description task (HL) Pham and Tipton (2018) Picture naming and picture identification task (IL & HL) Schwartz (2008) Composite measure of Russian receptive and productive lexical knowledge using semantic categories knowledge, antonym knowledge, word description, PPVT-R (HL) Tsai et al (2012) Language Assessment Scales -Oral (Pre-LAS version) and PPVT-III (IL & HL) Parental questionnaire De Houwer (2007) Place of residence, family members age and citizenship, language(s) spoken at home by parents and children Doyle (2018) Demographic information Eisenchlas et al (2019) Online survey on parental ideologies, language practices, HL management and demographic family information Howard et al (2014) Demographic survey on school and family (SES, home language and literacy practices, children's schooling history …) -sometimes administered in interview-form, sometimes with follow-up calls Makarova, Terekhova, and Mousavi (2019) Demographic backgroun...…”

A Four-Year Longitudinal Comparative Study on the Lexicon Development of Russian and Turkish Heritage Speakers in Germany

“…A decisive factor for the development of the HL lexicon is the amount of HL input (e.g., Cheung et al 2018;Cohen 2014;De Houwer 2011;Quiroz et al 2010;Thordardottir 2011). Accordingly, the strongest predictor for HL lexicon size is the amount of HL use at home (Klassert and Gagarina 2010;Leseman 2000), particularly the use within the nuclear family (Gagarina and Klassert 2018).…”

Home literacy practices that support language and literacy development in bilingual children: a longitudinal case study

“…However, the only SES indicator measured in these studies was the parents' education. These studies did not offer additional information about the quantity or quality of the home language and literacy environment or to what extent factors such as books at home or shared reading might explain these differences (Kalia and Reese 2009;Cheung et al 2019).…”