The Relationship Between Children’s Early Language Competencies and Parental Engagement in Learning Activities in Pre-Primary Schools in Busia County, Kenya

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the relationship between children’s early language competencies and parental engagement in learning activities in pre-primary schools in Busia County, Kenya. This study used Joyce Epstein's parental involvement model to inform the study, while correlation design was used to guide the study. The target population was pre-primary school children plus their teachers and parents in 67 public schools and 40 private schools. Out of these schools, 7 public schools and 4 private schools were sampled. Early language skills checklist, questionnaire and interview schedules were used for data collection. A pilot study was conducted in two primary schools. Content validity was used to determine the research tools' validity, whereas the reliability of the instruments was established using the test-retest method. When analysing qualitative data, thematic analysis was used, while quantitative data was analysed using inferential statistics, where frequencies, percentages, and means were generated. A t-test and correlation were used to test null hypotheses. Results revealed that average language competencies had a mean score of 2.32 (M=2.32) to average parental engagement, which had a mean score of 2.20 (M=2.20) with a mean difference of 0.12 (M=0.12). The mean difference is 0.12, which indicates that parental engagement had a very small influence on the acquisition of early language competencies. The correlation coefficient between parental engagement with (M=2.20; SD=.874) and language competencies with (M=2.32; SD=.817; t (254) =.832' p=.000 two-tailed) indicated that the relationship between parental engagement and language competencies was positive and had high significance. Averagely, the mean score for parental engagement in private schools was 3.49 (M=3.49), and the mean score for public schools was 1.91(M=1.91) with a mean difference of 1.58 (M-1.58). It was concluded that the majority of parents did not participate in their children's early language acquisition activities. However, parents of children from private schools participated more in their children's language acquisition than parents of children from public schools. This research recommended that public school parents encourage each other to be actively involved in their children’s language activities at home. Parents from public schools should inspire each other to collaboratively work together to support the provision of language teaching and learning resources. Public school administrators and managers should organize workshops for parents to educate them on how they can guide their children on where, when and how to do language activities, how to access educative language resources from the internet, and how to find developmentally appropriate language programs on television.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0797/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>