The Effect of Maternal Language on Bilingual Children's Vocabulary and Emergent Literacy Development During Head Start and Kindergarten

Hammer, Carol Scheffner; Davison, Megan Dunn; Lawrence, Frank R.; Miccio, Adele W.

doi:10.1080/10888430902769541

Cited by 221 publications

(210 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…This risk of being low at least in ethnic language supports the findings of other studies that more sources of input are needed in an ethnic language in the face of a very dominant societal language (Duursma et al 2007;Gathercole and Thomas 2009;Scheele et al 2010). These findings were consistent with findings in other settings that parents' preference for and use of English was negatively related to children's language proficiency in the ethnic language (Hammer et al 2009;Saravanan 2001).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Other studies suggest parents' own language proficiency plays an important role in choice of parental language (Lambert and Taylor 1996;Saravanan 2001), which seems commonsensical: why would parents limit their communication with their child by speaking a language in which the parents do not have strong proficiency? Thus, a teacher recommendation to use the societal language at home may backfire: Hammer et al (2009) found that parents switching from ethnic to societal language (English) did not improve their children's English proficiency, but their Spanish proficiency suffered. Rather than recommending a certain language be used at home, teachers can recommend that the parents engage in vocabulary-building practices, such as conversations, storytelling and reading (Scheele et al 2010), in whatever language(s) they are using at home.…”

Section: Implications and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Hammer et al (2009) found that when mothers in the US changed the language they used with their child from Spanish to English, the child experienced slower rates of Spanish vocabulary growth and demonstrated lower overall Spanish vocabulary. In addition, mothers who spoke to their children in Spanish acquired Spanish vocabulary at a faster rate than their peers whose mothers spoke more English and less Spanish.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…However, Gathercole and Thomas (2009) suggested that home language plays the most important role at a young age. Home support may be crucial for developing an ethnic language, because less ethnic language input is typically available outside the home (Hammer et al 2009). Oller and Eilers (2002) found that school-aged bilingual children in the US whose families spoke only Spanish at home had significantly higher Spanish and lower English vocabulary than those whose families spoke English and Spanish about equally at home.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Profiles in Bilingualism: Factors Influencing Kindergartners’ Language Proficiency

Dixon

Daraghmeh

2011

Early Childhood Educ J

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Three common assumptions concerning bilingual children's language proficiency are: (1) their proficiency in two languages is usually unbalanced; (2) low socioeconomic status (SES) indicates low proficiency in both languages; and (3) encouraging parents to speak some societal language at home will promote its development. Examining the vocabulary scores of 282 bilingual Singaporean kindergartners (167 Chinese, 70 Malay, and 45 Tamil), the current study found that these young children were evenly divided among four language profiles: strong in ethnic language (Chinese, Malay or Tamil) or English, strong in both languages, or weak in both. Children with high proficiency in both languages were proportionally represented in the low, middle and high SES groups, demonstrating the achievability of strong vocabulary in two languages for children of different SES. However, low SES children were most at risk for low proficiency in both languages, although many achieved high proficiency in ethnic language or both. Middle and high SES children were most likely to demonstrate low ethnic language with high English proficiency. Children mostly exposed to one language from different sources generally showed strength in that language. Children exposed to both languages at home were most likely to show low proficiency in both languages, although plenty of children exposed to both languages developed high proficiency in English or both. These results affirm previous findings that SES and home language exposure influence bilingual children's proficiency. Implications include the importance of teachers assessing bilingual children's proficiency in both languages and collaborating with parents to develop bilingual children's vocabulary.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Implications and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Profiles in Bilingualism: Factors Influencing Kindergartners’ Language Proficiency

Dixon

Daraghmeh

2011

Early Childhood Educ J

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“…For example, following 72 Spanish-English bilingual children over three years of English instruction in preschool and kindergarten, Hammer et al (2009) found that mothers' sustained use of Spanish led to a larger Spanish vocabulary with no loss to their children's English vocabulary. In contrast, mothers' increased use of English was related to their children's slower growth in Spanish.…”

Section: Home Language Usementioning

confidence: 98%

Home language and literacy practices among immigrant second-language learners

Dixon

2014

Lang. Teach.

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Because certain home language and literacy practices have been found to be beneficial to monolingual children's literacy development, we examine immigrant children's home language and literacy practices in different countries. Presenting findings from 92 post-2000 articles, we examine research into these practices, what factors influence their occurrence, how they influence immigrant children's development of literacy in the societal language, and what factors seem to moderate or mediate the effects of home literacy activities on societal-language literacy. We found that immigrant families engage in a wide variety of oral language and literacy activities at home, but that most of these practices have not been investigated in relation to immigrant children's literacy development. Book reading, the most-studied practice, seems to promote such development. Additional research is needed into the many factors that influence children's literacy development, including government policies and community context. In addition, researchers need to build on existing descriptive and correlational studies to design and implement innovative school curricula and family literacy programs that connect home and school practices and encourage parental involvement in the school.

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A Framework for the Dual Language Assessment of Young Dual Language Learners in the United States

Guzman‐Orth

López

Tolentino

2017

ETS Research Report Series

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Since its 1947 founding, ETS has conducted and disseminated scientific research to support its products and services, and to advance the measurement and education fields. In keeping with these goals, ETS is committed to making its research freely available to the professional community and to the general public. Published accounts of ETS research, including papers in the ETS Research Report series, undergo a formal peer-review process by ETS staff to ensure that they meet established scientific and professional standards. All such ETS-conducted peer reviews are in addition to any reviews that outside organizations may provide as part of their own publication processes. Peer review notwithstanding, the positions expressed in the ETS Research Report series and other published accounts of ETS research are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Officers and Trustees of Educational Testing Service.The Daniel Eignor Editorship is named in honor of Dr. Daniel R. Eignor, who from 2001 until 2011 served the Research and Development division as Editor for the ETS Research Report series. The Eignor Editorship has been created to recognize the pivotal leadership role that Dr. Eignor played in the research publication process at ETS. ETS Research Report Series ISSN 2330-8516 R E S E A R C H R E P O R T A Framework for the Dual Language Assessment of Young Dual Language Learners in the United StatesDanielle Guzman-Orth, Alexis A. Lopez, & Florencia TolentinoEducational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ Dual language learners (DLLs) and the various educational programs that serve them are increasing in number across the country. This framework lays out a conceptual approach for dual language assessment tasks designed to measure the language and literacy skills of young DLLs entering kindergarten in the United States. Although our examples focus on Spanish-English DLLs, we anticipate that our recommendations could be broadly applied to other language combinations with appropriate adaptations for each language.

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The Effect of Maternal Language on Bilingual Children's Vocabulary and Emergent Literacy Development During Head Start and Kindergarten

Cited by 221 publications

References 41 publications

Profiles in Bilingualism: Factors Influencing Kindergartners’ Language Proficiency

Profiles in Bilingualism: Factors Influencing Kindergartners’ Language Proficiency

Home language and literacy practices among immigrant second-language learners

A Framework for the Dual Language Assessment of Young Dual Language Learners in the United States

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