Home Literacy Environment and Chinese-Canadian First Graders’ Bilingual Vocabulary Profiles: A Mixed Methods Analysis

Abstract

Bilingual children in the North American context significantly improve in English language proficiency, but their heritage language learning varies between different linguistic groups. This mixed methods study was designed to explore the developmental patterns in bilingual vocabulary among Chinese-Canadian first-graders’ (N = 75) and to identify home factors that may have contributed to divergent bilingual developmental trajectories. Cluster analyses were conducted to identify underlying discrepancy profiles in bilingual oral lexicon. Four children with contrasting bilingual profiles were selected for qualitative analysis to explore home factors that may have contributed to the discrepancies. Thematic analyses of parental interviews revealed several family factors such as beliefs and attitudes toward bilingualism, quality literacy engagement, and sibling dynamics, that all appearing to contribute to the discrepancies.

Young Children’s Digital Literacy Practices with Caregivers in the Home Environment: Voices of Chinese Parents and Grandparents

“…This result has not been found in other similar studies carried out in the West [3]. However, this is not uncommon in migrant families in the West, particularly Chinese immigrant families [2,44]. Chinese parents have high expectations for their children's school performance and academic skills, so they utilize informal digital practices for their chil-dren to enhance their academic skills.…”

“…With the development of digital technology, young children have begun to be born with various kinds of digital technologies available (i.e., apps, smartphones, iPads). At the same time, in recent years, scholars have paid more attention to how we can develop young children's digital literacy in the home environment [1][2][3][4]. Although research studies have been carried out in different social contexts, and the children's literacy skills under study have been different, researchers have generally reported that young children can develop an understanding of digital literacy through their engagement in early literacy practices in the family context from birth.…”

A comparative study on the development of Chinese and English abilities of Chinese primary school students through two bilingual reading modes: human-AI robot interaction and paper books

“…Meanwhile, children from blue-collar urban families, rural children who were left behind and raised by grandparents (since their parents moved to the city for work), and migrant children who follow their parents from the countryside to cities for school only have parents with low levels of education and busy work schedules, as well as a lack of awareness and ability of family education, resulting in many elementary school student’s bilingual inability and academic underperformance ( Lv et al, 2020 ). Even in Beijing, the capital of China, most families (90.1%) do not have an English Chinese bilingual family environment ( Li G. et al, 2022 ). Many migrant children either struggle in non-standard informal migrant worker schools or are left in their hometowns, facing difficulties in accessing quality education ( Zhang et al, 2021 ).…”