The effects of bilingual education on the English language and literacy outcomes of Chinese-speaking children

Hipfner-Boucher, Kathleen; Lam, Katie; Chen, Xi

doi:10.1075/wll.17.1.06hip

Cited by 41 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 45 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Conversely, little is known about the vocabulary outcomes of ELs in French immersion. A recent study has shown that the English vocabulary scores of Mandarin-speaking students in French immersion in grade 1 were comparable to those of a normative sample (Hipfner-Boucher, Lam, & Chen, 2014 ). However, the study involved a small sample of 22 students.…”

Section: Vocabularymentioning

confidence: 84%

Development of English and French Language and Literacy Skills in EL1 and EL French Immersion Students in the Early Grades

et al. 2014

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article, we report two studies that compared the development of English and French language and literacy skills in French immersion students identified as native English speakers (EL1s) and English learners (ELs). In study 1, 81 EL1s and 147 ELs were tested in the fall and spring terms of grade 1. The EL1s and ELs had similar outcomes and comparable gains in English phonological awareness and word reading. Comparable performance was observed on all the French measures (phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary, word reading, and reading comprehension). Only in English receptive vocabulary did the EL1s outperform the ELs. In study 2, a subset of the students in study 1 was followed into grades 2 and 3 (36 EL1s and 33 ELs). Overall, the EL1s and ELs demonstrated similar performance and gains in English phonological awareness, word reading, and reading comprehension in grades 2 and 3. The EL1s outperformed their EL peers in English expressive and receptive vocabulary across all grades, despite more rapid growth among the ELs. At the same time, outcomes on all of the French measures were comparable between the two groups. The findings of remarkably comparable performance by the EL1s and ELs suggest that overall, French immersion does not impede English language and literacy skill development in ELs, making it a viable option for these students.

show abstract

Section: Vocabularymentioning

confidence: 84%

Development of English and French Language and Literacy Skills in EL1 and EL French Immersion Students in the Early Grades

et al. 2014

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The few existing studies on Canadian FI programs have included younger children developing word reading skills. In these studies, multilingual and bilingual children came from households where parents had a relatively high level of educationdescribed as "middle-class" with some post-secondary educationand lived in households that generally supported language and literacy development in all languages (e.g., Au-Yeung et al, 2015;Dagenais, 2003;Hipfner-Boucher et al, 2014). One study by Au-Yeung et al (2015) examined the effects of bilingual education on the development of language proficiency and reading comprehension skills in the L2 and L3 of multilingual students from Grade 1 to Grade 3.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A longitudinal examination of French and English reading comprehension in French immersion programs in Canada

Bérubé

Uchikoshi

Marinova‐Todd

2022

Applied Psycholinguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Parental level of education, instruction time, and amount of language practice that children receive have enhanced our understanding of how bilingual and multilingual children learn to comprehend text. Guided by the simple view of reading and the interdependence hypothesis, this longitudinal study conducted in Canadian French immersion programs examined the (a) within- and cross-language association between oral language skills and reading comprehension of bilingual English–French and multilingual children and (b) patterns of growth, while controlling for possible influences of parental level of education and methods of instruction on reading achievement. The sample included 150 children tested once at the beginning of Grade 4 (T1) and again at the end of Grade 4 (T2) and in Grade 6 (T3). Individual growth modeling revealed that bilingual and multilingual children showed similar development in oral language and reading skills across the timeframe. Moreover, growth in English and French reading comprehension was associated with within-language variables. English reading comprehension in Grade 4 was also associated with cross-language variables, including French listening comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. Reading development in the second and third language is enhanced in contexts where classroom instruction, as well as social, economic, and educational opportunities to learn, is equivalent for all students.

show abstract

“…The assessment country (i.e., whether English-dominant, such as Canada or the US, or non-English dominant, such as Singapore; Table 11 and Figure 11) did not mediate the relationship between English phonological awareness and word/non-word reading. However, this may be due to statistical power; only 11/33 independent studies assessed English phonological awareness and word/non-word reading skills across the two countries (Hipfner-Boucher et al, 2014;Yeong et al, 2014;Hsu et al, 2019;O'Brien et al, 2019;Lam et al, 2012;Ríos-López et al, 2017). We could not examine influences of assessment country on Chinese literacy skills, as few studies assessed both languages (Hsu et al, 2019;Mak, 2014).…”

Section: Interim Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assessing both languages will also enable investigation of factors facilitating -or inhibiting -biliteracy development and cross-language transfer of emergent literacy skills, in speakers of disparate orthographic combinations such as Chinese-English bilinguals (Bérubé & Marinova-Todd, 2012;Hipfner-Boucher et al, 2014;Lam et al, 2012). Reading models, including Script Dependent Hypothesis (SDH) and Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (LIH), have predominantly examined reading development in monolingual readers of alphabetic and non-alphabetic languages, and cross-language transfer effects in alphabetic-alphabetic bilinguals (e.g., Ellis & Hooper, 2001).…”

Section: Interim Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This review also demonstrated an English-language assessment bias, with limited studies assessing literacy skills across heritage and societal languages. Most assessments were conducted only in English (Hipfner-Boucher et al, 2014;Yeong et al, 2014;Chiappe et al, 2002;Hsu et al, 2019;O'Brien et al, 2019;Bérubé & Marinova-Todd, 2012;Lam et al, 2012;Sun et al, 2021;Yang, 2010), or in English and a heritage language (Hsu et al, 2019;Jasińska et al, 2018;Hammer et al, 2007;Dunn et al, 2011;Cherodath & Singh, 2015;D'angiulli et al, 2001;Spencer & Hanley, 2003;Rhys & Thomas, 2013;Mak, 2014). The stronger correlations for within-, compared to across-, language testing for vocabulary and word/non-word reading emphasize importance of developing language-specific precursor screening tools to evaluate and support emergent literacy skills across spoken languages (Table 12, Appendix A).…”

Section: Interim Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Early Precursors of Literacy Development in Simultaneous Bilinguals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Bhalloo

Molnar

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Several literacy precursors have been identified in monolingual English-speaking children; however, it is unclear whether the same precursors are also associated with literacy development in bilingual children. Purpose: We examine whether in simultaneous bilingual children: (i) code-related, oral-language, and domain-general cognitive literacy precursors have been utilized, similar to monolingual children; (ii) other types of precursors have been identified; (iii) code-related, oral-language, domain-general cognitive, or other types of literacy precursors are associated with word/non-word and/or text-level reading skills; in (a) one or (b) both spoken languages; (iv) the type of literacy outcome measure, and (v) language background measure influence performance on emergent literacy skills. Method: We examined reported statistical associations, between a given literacy precursor and outcome measure, and conducted a meta-analysis examining specific code-related and oral-language precursors in relation to word/non-word reading and/or text reading comprehension. Results: Apart from semantic awareness, all code-related, oral-language, domain-general cognitive and eight additional identified precursors were significantly associated with reading in simultaneous bilinguals. However, these precursors were predominantly assessed only in English, or English in addition to a heritage language. Phonological awareness and vocabulary emerged as commonly-assessed precursors consistently associated with reading. Conclusions: Particularly, these code-related and oral-language skills may be used as precursor screening tools in simultaneous bilinguals, across heritage and societal languages. Future research should develop language-specific precursor screening tools and investigate the reliability of non-linguistic precursors, to address the evident English assessment bias and support biliteracy development across spoken languages.

show abstract

The effects of bilingual education on the English language and literacy outcomes of Chinese-speaking children

Cited by 41 publications

References 45 publications

Development of English and French Language and Literacy Skills in EL1 and EL French Immersion Students in the Early Grades

Development of English and French Language and Literacy Skills in EL1 and EL French Immersion Students in the Early Grades

A longitudinal examination of French and English reading comprehension in French immersion programs in Canada

Early Precursors of Literacy Development in Simultaneous Bilinguals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About