Acceso usuarios
Guofang Li
, Fubiao Zhen, Lee Gunderson, Zhen Lin
This longitudinal study examines the relationship between Chinese-Canadian children’s (N = 173) home literacy environment (HLE) and their bilingual receptive vocabulary development in English and Chinese from grades 1–3. Bilingual receptive vocabulary in Chinese and English and quality and quantity of HLE measures were collected. Sociodemographic information in L1 (Cantonese or Mandarin), gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and immigration status were also collected. Descriptive analyses of data showed that the children’s English receptive vocabulary increased significantly while their Chinese vocabulary decreased substantially over the three grades. There were also gender, SES, and home language (Mandarin or Cantonese) differences in bilingual receptive vocabulary skills. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analysis results indicated that the quantity of home language use was significantly correlated with Chinese receptive vocabulary development but not with English receptive vocabulary. High-quality home literacy activities were significantly associated with vocabulary in both languages. These findings have important implications for parental engagement in early biliteracy and early literacy instruction in schools.
