Adina Schick

The Development of Children's Oral Narratives Across Contexts

Research Findings: Children across cultures begin the process of becoming literate well before they begin formal schooling. The early narratives children share in conversation with others lay the foundation for various academic and nonacademic aspects of school readiness. Practice or Policy: The present review synthesizes the major work conducted on the development of oral narratives among children from diverse sociocultural backgrounds, especially those shared at home, at school, and with peers. Contemporary research is discussed in relation to the socialization practices across cultures and the role these practices might play in shaping childrens narrative discourse.

Ecocultural Patterns of Family Engagement Among Low-Income Latino Families of Preschool Children

For the 5 million low-income Latino children in the United States who are disproportionately impacted by the numerous risk factors associated with poverty, it is essential to identify proximal protective factors that mitigate these risks and bolster the academic and social skills that are foundational to a successful transition into formal schooling. Using ecocultural theory as a lens to guide this work, the present study: (a) described patterns of culture-contextualized family engagement among a low-income, Latino sample, and (b) examined relations between these patterns, family demographic factors, and childrens language and social skills in preschool. Across Spanish and English language subsamples, we found evidence that there is heterogeneity in patterns of family engagement within and across language groups, such that different forms of family engagement defined the high engagement profiles in particular. We also found that demographic factors (such as child gender, family structure, and parental education and employment) predicted these patterns differentially across language groups, and that these patterns related to childrens social and language skills in meaningful ways. Findings provide directions for future research, theory, and practice with this heterogeneous cultural group. (PsycINFO Database Record

Print-related practices in low-income Latino homes and preschoolers’ school-readiness outcomes

This study examined literacy practices in the homes of 127 low-income Latino preschoolers enrolled in bilingual preschool classrooms. Specifically, we investigated the print-related practices that Latino primary caregivers engaged in with their preschool-aged children at the start of the school year and explored the relation between these practices and children’s language, literacy, and social–emotional school-readiness outcomes at the end of the preschool year. The results demonstrate the importance of print – including books and non-book-related environmental print – for Latino preschool children’s development of early literacy and self-regulation skills. In addition, the results highlight that when sharing picture books with their children, low-income Latino caregivers provided the majority of the information to their children, and ask few questions of them, thereby adopting a sole-narrator participatory role. Interestingly, the manner in which caregivers shared the books with their children was not related to child outcomes. The results are discussed in relation to the importance of enhancing Latino caregivers’ culturally preferred print-related practices as a means of fostering their preschoolers’ language, literacy, and social–emotional development.

Wordless book-sharing styles in bilingual preschool classrooms and Latino children’s emergent literacy skills

The current study explored the preschool classroom environment as an important context for supporting dual-language learning Latino children’s development of emergent literacy skills. The results of the study showed that teachers in Spanish–English bilingual preschool classrooms varied in the way they shared wordless picture books with the children, with analyses yielding three distinct narrative styles: didactic constructors, didactic providers and conversational sharers. These styles were differentiated in the manner in which teachers engaged the preschoolers in book-sharing interactions. Children whose teachers adopted a didactic constructor style (i.e. teachers elicited most of the narrative information from the children) seemed to have the best outcomes at the end of the preschool year, in terms of their print-related, language and storytelling skills. In addition, teachers’ use of cognitively challenging talk was related to Latino preschoolers’ language and storytelling skills, especially for the youngest children. Results are discussed in relation to the importance of preschool in supporting low-income Latino children’s emergent literacy development.

The Bidirectional Nature of Narrative Scaffolding: Latino Caregivers' Elaboration While Creating Stories from a Picture Book.

Although caregiver narrative elaboration is seen as a critical dimension for children’s development of narrative skills, research has yet to show a predictive relation between caregiver elaboration and child outcomes for low-income Latino children. The present study explored whether specific types of narrative elaboration were predicted by and predictive of Latino children’s language and storytelling skills. Results showed that, whereas provision of new elaboration was negatively predictive of children’s language skills, provision of embellished elaboration predicted more advanced language skills six months later. Moreover, caregivers whose children had more developed language and storytelling skills included fewer new elaborations, but more embellished elaborations. The findings highlight Latino caregivers’ responsiveness and sensitivity to children’s abilities and further our understanding of the nuanced ways in which narrative elaboration is used by Latino caregivers.

Early Bilingualism through the Looking Glass: Latino Preschool Children’s Language and Self-Regulation Skills

ABSTRACT During the early years, childrens language skills are developing rapidly. For bilingual children, the development of both languages is highly sensitive to environmental input. Thus, capturing bilingualism in the early years poses a great challenge for researchers, especially those interested in examining how bilingualism might relate to other developmental areas, such as self-regulation. Traditionally, child development researchers have operationalized bilingualism as a categorical variable, most often relying on the use of self-reported data. In the present study, we compared various ways of capturing childhood bilingualism and demonstrated how these different measures privileged divergent aspects of childrens bilingual experience, as well as how they were differentially related to childrens self-regulation skills.

Motivation and second language acquisition

This chapter examines past research on the role motivation plays in the success of learning a second language. We begin by providing a comprehensive overview of the key conceptual models that have applied the construct of motivation to second language acquisition, namely Gardner and Lambert’s seminal Socio-educational Model of Motivation on Second Language Acquisition. Next, we present an overview of more contemporary conceptual models, which are more inclusive and integrative in nature, and examine how different aspects of the learner and the learning situation might influence motivation and learning outcomes. Then, we turn to the operationalisation and measurement of second language motivation and present an overview of recent empirical work on integrative motivation and second language learning. In our final section, we discuss group differences in motivation and second language acquisition, with an emphasis on the influence of gender, age and culture/ethnicity.