The Home Literacy Environment and the English Narrative Development of Spanish–English Bilingual Children

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the home literacy environment (HLE) on the English narrative development of Spanish–English bilingual children from low-income backgrounds. Method Longitudinal data were collected on 81 bilingual children from preschool through 1st grade. English narrative skills were assessed in the fall and spring of each year. Microstructure measures included mean length of utterance in morphemes and number of different words. The Narrative Scoring Scheme (Heilmann, Miller, Nockerts, & Dunaway, 2010) measured macrostructure. Each fall, the children's mothers reported the frequency of literacy activities and number of children's books in the home. Growth curve modeling was used to describe the children's narrative development and the impact of the HLE over time. Results Significant growth occurred for all narrative measures. The HLE did not affect microstructure growth. The frequency with which mothers read to their children had a positive impact on the growth of the children's total Narrative Scoring Scheme scores. Other aspects of the HLE, such as the frequency with which the mothers told stories, did not affect macrostructure development. Conclusions These results provide information about the development of English narrative abilities and demonstrate the importance of frequent book reading for the overall narrative quality of children from Spanish-speaking homes who are learning English.

English Narrative Language Growth Across the School Year: Young Spanish–English Dual Language Learners

“…Lexical diversity. The current results for NDW are most similar to those reported by Bitetti and Hammer (2016). The current finding that NDW grew by 6.6 in the school year (Dunn & Dunn, 2007); NDW reflects number of different words; WPM reflects words per minute; Total macro reflects the total number of macrostructure elements coded; Macro codes reflects the number of different types of macrostructural components present out of eight total elements (character, setting, plot, initiating event, emotions/reactions, attempt, consequence, ending); Verb accuracy refers to the overall percentage accuracy for verb usage in the narrative retell.…”

“…Burgeoning studies have begun to examine school year growth in narrative production on measures of lexical diversity (e.g., number of different words or NDW), story components, and utterance length (e.g., mean length of utterance [MLU]). In one study of narrative production growth (Bitetti & Hammer, 2016), findings included that NDW tended to grow an average of 5.74 words every year from the beginning of preschool to the end of first grade, beginning on average at 43.20 words and achieving on average 83.38 words at the end of first grade. Growth was also evidenced in utterance length with MLU-morpheme score increasing 0.49 points each year, averaging 4.32 morphemes at the beginning of first grade and 7.75 morphemes at the end of first grade.…”

“…Although burgeoning studies suggest narrative retell measures are sensitive to developmental growth for bilinguals, fewer studies have examined concurrent and predictive relationships between measures. One study (Bitetti & Hammer, 2016) found that book reading in the home contributed significantly to growth in macrostructural elements, but not microstructural elements. Such studies are limited by the heterogeneity in DLL's initial English language skills, which is often not taken into account.…”

Teacher-child interactions and kindergartners' task behaviors: Observations based on interpersonal theory

“…As such, Task Performance measured children's insight in cause-effect relations (i.e., their capability of logic thinking) and whether they were able to tell stories that are not situated in a larger context as would be the case in, for example, a book. Performance on decontextualized story telling (i.e., narrative assessments; cf., Bitetti & Hammer, 2016) has been found to be related to young children's literacy skills and overall academic outcomes (e.g., Dickinson & Tabors, 2001;Griffin, Hemphill, Camp, & Wolf, 2004). Ratings were given for each of the three series separately but were aggregated for the present analyses to form one rating for each child.…”

Dialogic Reading for Comprehension: effects on children's story retelling - a case report

“…Dialogic Reading Given the evidence supporting its role in child development and school success, researchers have investigated activities which may foster retelling skills 4,[15][16][17][18] . Here, experimental evidence for the effects of Dialogic Reading (DR) on retelling is reviewed.…”