Blanca Quiroz

Vocabulary skills of Spanish—English bilinguals: impact of mother—child language interactions and home language and literacy support

Quantity and quality of home language use as well as home literacy resources are positively related to vocabulary knowledge among children growing up monolingually (De Temple & Snow, 2003; Juel, 1988; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998; Stanovich, 1986). While the presence of interactive features associated with good vocabulary outcomes have been reported in Latino families (Jiménez, Filippini, & Gerber, 2006; Teale, 1986) no prospective studies relating those features to vocabulary outcomes in either Spanish or English have been carried out with Latino children. In particular, it is unclear whether interactions facilitate vocabulary across languages, or only for the language in which they occur. In this study, home factors (immigration history, home language use, home literacy resources) and the interactive language of 50 mother—child dyads sharing a picture-book were analyzed as predictors of the children’s vocabulary outcomes. The children were aged 4—5 and all were attending a Head Start program at the time of the study. Frequency of reading to the child by an adult other than the

Home and community factors influencing bilingual children’s ethnic language vocabulary development

The influence of home and community factors in predicting ethnic or heritage language vocabulary were examined among 282 Singaporean children whose ethnic languages (or mother tongues) were Chinese, Malay, or Tamil, and who were also learning English. The results indicated that (1) parents speaking ethnic language to children had a strong positive effect on children’s ethnic language vocabulary, whereas parents speaking only English had a negative effect; (2) language community had an effect on children’s ethnic language vocabulary, which may reflect community support for the language among the broader community; (3) family income worked differently depending on the language community; and (4) watching television in English mostly/only had a negative effect on children’s ethnic language vocabulary. These findings lend support to other studies among language-minority children indicating that maintaining an ethnic or heritage language requires home support when schooling is through a societally dominant language.

Sociodemographic Factors Influence Cultural Values Comparing European American With Korean Mothers and Children in Three Settings—Rural Korea, Urban Korea, and Los Angeles

The gross generalization that East is collectivistic and West is individualistic overlooks the within-group variability among East Asians in the current era of social change and globalization. The aim of this study was to disentangle the role of sociodemographic factors, ethnic heritage culture, and immigration in shaping the individualistic–collectivistic value orientations of Korean mothers and their fifth-grade children residing in rural Korea, urban Korea, and Koreatown, Los Angeles. A European American sample in Los Angeles provided an approximation of mainstream United States values. In semi-structured interviews, participants’ value orientations were assessed using interpersonal dilemma scenarios in home and school situations. Participants’ household sociodemographic factors were the most significant contributor to their home values: Higher maternal education was associated with orientation towards individualism, and three-generation households was associated with orienttion towards collectivism. When the sociodemographic factors were taken into consideration, Koreans were not more collectivistic than European Americans in the home domain. Domain-specificity was found such that individualism was greater in the school domain than in the home domain across the three groups of Koreans, who were as individualistic as European Americans in the school domain. Generational difference was found such that children were more collectivistic than mothers in the home domain. Rural Koreans were not more collectivistic than urban Koreans, which should be interpreted in the context of the high level of technology and education in the rural Korean environment.

Mother–child interactions during shared literacy activities: Education in a fractured bilingual environment

Research indicates that mothers scaffold the literacy skills of their children when jointly engaged in literacy-related activities in monolingual families (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2001). Yet little is known about the linguistic environment of English language learners in the USA, a group at high risk for reading difficulties if they are only taught in English and the school is not mindful of their linguistic and cultural strengths (Snow et al., 1998). We studied mother–child language interactions in Spanish-speaking families in the USA during two literacy-related activities at home (book reading and a homework-like task). We employed language data analysis, discourse analysis, surveys and observations to study four cases of mother–child communication and its relation to the children’s literacy and language skills (letter-word identification, dictation, vocabulary). Mother–child proficiency in the same language (Spanish, English or bilingual similarities between mother and child) was necessary, but not sufficient, to facilitate their communication. Maternal language and literacy skills in this sample related to the quality of language input, but only in dyads with shared language did it relate to successful communication and the child’s skills. Continuity between home/school language and literacy showed compounded support for language that transferred to literacy skills across languages. This association was observed even in dyads with mothers who had scored low on receptive vocabulary or/and had only a few years of formal education. These findings suggest that maintaining a school language environment that preserves mother–child communication and its positive association with learning would yield the best educational outcomes for this particular population.