Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-lrblm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-26T04:15:02.977Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Home language and literacy practices among immigrant second-language learners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

L. Quentin Dixon  and
Shuang Wu
L. Quentin Dixon
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University, Texas, [email protected], [email protected]
Shuang Wu
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University, Texas, [email protected], [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Because certain home language and literacy practices have been found to be beneficial to monolingual children's literacy development, we examine immigrant children's home language and literacy practices in different countries. Presenting findings from 92 post-2000 articles, we examine research into these practices, what factors influence their occurrence, how they influence immigrant children's development of literacy in the societal language, and what factors seem to moderate or mediate the effects of home literacy activities on societal-language literacy. We found that immigrant families engage in a wide variety of oral language and literacy activities at home, but that most of these practices have not been investigated in relation to immigrant children's literacy development. Book reading, the most-studied practice, seems to promote such development. Additional research is needed into the many factors that influence children's literacy development, including government policies and community context. In addition, researchers need to build on existing descriptive and correlational studies to design and implement innovative school curricula and family literacy programs that connect home and school practices and encourage parental involvement in the school.

Type
State-of-the-Art Article
Information
Language Teaching , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , October 2014 , pp. 414 - 449
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

August, D. & Shanahan, T. (eds.) (2006). Developing literacy in second language learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Billings, E. S. (2009). Prescriptions to read: Early literacy promotion outside the classroom. Literacy Teaching and Learning 13.1, 81–101.Google Scholar
Boyce, L. K., Cook, G. A., Roggman, L. A., Innocenti, M. S., Jump, V. K. & Akers, J. F. (2004). Sharing books and learning language: What do Latina mothers and their young children do? Early Education & Development 15.4, 371–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (2001). Bioecological theory of human development. In Smelser, N. J. & Baltes, P. B. (eds.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences. New York, NY: Elsevier, 6963–6970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. & Evans, G. W. (2000). Developmental science in the 21st century: Emerging questions, theoretical models, research designs, and empirical findings. Social Development 9.1, 115–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooker, L. (2003). Learning how to learn: Parental ethnotheories and young children's preparation for school. International Journal of Early Years Education 11.2, 117–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bus, A. G., van IJzendoorn, M. H. & Pellegrini, A. D. (1995). Joint book reading makes for success in learning to read: A meta-analysis on intergenerational transmission of literacy. Review of Educational Research 65.1, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chow, H. P. H. (2001). Learning the Chinese language in a multicultural milieu: Factors affecting Chinese-Canadian adolescents’ ethnic language school experience. The Alberta Journal of Educational Research 47.4, 369–374.Google Scholar
Cruickshank, K. (2004). Literacy in multilingual contexts: Change in teenagers’ reading and writing. Language and Education 18.6, 459–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Piedra, M. T. (2010). Adolescent worlds and literacy practices on the United States–Mexico border. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 53.7, 575–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, D. K. & Tabors, P. O. (eds.) (2001). Beginning literacy with language: Young children learning at home and school. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.Google Scholar
Diener, M., Wright, C., Julian, J. & Byington, C. (2003). A pediatric literacy education program for low socioeconomic, culturally diverse families. Journal of Research in Childhood Education 18.2, 149–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driessen, G., Van der Slik, F. & De Bot, K. (2002). Home language and language proficiency: A large-scale longitudinal study in Dutch primary schools. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 23.3, 175–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duursma, E., Pan, B. A. & Raikes, H. (2008). Predictors and outcomes of low-income fathers’ reading with their toddlers. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 23.3, 351–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duursma, E., Romero-Contreras, S., Szuber, A., Proctor, P., Snow, C., August, D. & Calderón, M. (2007). The role of home literacy and language environment on bilinguals’ English and Spanish vocabulary development. Applied Psycholinguistics 28.1, 171–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Early, J. S. (2010). ‘Mi’ja, you should be a writer’: Latino parental support of their first-generation children. Bilingual Research Journal 33.3, 277–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ek, L. D. (2008). Language and literacy in the Pentecostal church and the public high school: A case study of a Mexican ESL student. The High School Journal 92.2, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farver, J. A. M., Xu, Y., Eppe, S. & Lonigan, C. J. (2006). Home environments and young Latino children's school readiness. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 21.2, 196–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farver, J. A. M., Xu, Y., Lonigan, C. J. & Eppe, S. (2013). The home literacy environment and Latino Head Start children's emergent literacy skills. Developmental Psychology 49.4, 775–791.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Global Commission on International Migration (2005). Migration in an interconnected world: New directions for action. www.un-ngls.org/orf/international_migration.htmGoogle Scholar
Goldenberg, C., Rueda, R. S. & August, D. (2006). Synthesis: Sociocultural contexts and literacy development. In August, D. & Shanahan, T. (eds.), Developing literacy in second language learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 249–267.Google Scholar
Godina, H. (2004). Contradictory literacy practices of Mexican-background students: An ethnography from the rural Midwest. The Journal of the National Association for Bilingual Education 28.2, 153–180.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, J. E. & Uhing, B. M. (2008). Home literacy environments and young Hispanic children's English and Spanish oral language: A communality analysis. Journal of Early Intervention 30.2, 116–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guhn, M. & Goelman, H. (2011). Bioecological theory, early child development and the validation of the population-level early development instrument. Social Indicators Research 103.2, 193–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammer, C. S., Davison, M. D., Lawrence, F. R. & Miccio, A. W. (2009). The effect of home language on bilingual children's vocabulary and emergent literacy development during Head Start and kindergarten. Scientific Studies of Reading 13.2, 99–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harper, S., Platt, A. & Pelletier, J. (2011). Unique effects of a family literacy program on the early reading development of English language learners. Early Education & Development 22.6, 989–1008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hernández, A. C. (2001). The expected and unexpected literacy outcomes of bilingual students. Bilingual Research Journal 25.3, 301–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hindin, A. & Paratore, J. R. (2007). Supporting young children's literacy learning through home-school partnerships: The effectiveness of a home repeated-reading intervention. Journal of Literacy Research 39.3, 307–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirst, K., Hannon, P. & Nutbrown, C. (2010). Effects of a preschool bilingual family literacy programme. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 10.2, 183–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huerta, M. E. S. & Riojas-Cortez, M. (2011). Latino parents & students foster literacy through a culturally relevant folk medicine event. Multicultural Education 18.2, 39–43.Google Scholar
James, J. L. & Martin, B. N. (2009). A comparison of the parent-child interactions between Russian immigrant and non-immigrant families in a rural setting in Missouri. The Rural Educator 30.2, 11–19.Google Scholar
Jiménez, T. C., Filippini, A. L. & Gerber, M. M. (2006). Shared reading within Latino families: An analysis of reading interactions and language use. Bilingual Research Journal 30.2, 431–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joo, H. (2009). Literacy practices and heritage language maintenance: The case of Korean-American immigrant adolescents. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 19.1, 76–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, C., Gregory, E. & Williams, A. (2001). Home to school and school to home: Syncretised literacies in linguistic minority communities. Language, Culture and Curriculum 14.1, 9–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenner, C. (2005). Bilingual families as literacy eco-systems. Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development 25.3, 283–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenner, C., Kress, G., Al-Khatib, H., Kam, R. & Tsai, K.-C. (2004). Finding the keys to biliteracy: How young children interpret different writing systems. Language and Education 18.2, 124–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, J. S. & Guryan, J. (2010). The efficacy of a voluntary summer book reading intervention for low-income Latino children from language minority families. Journal of Educational Psychology 102.1, 20–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koskinen, P. S., Blum, I. H., Bisson, S. A., Phillips, S. M., Creamer, T. S. & Baker, T. K. (2000). Book access, shared reading, and audio models: The effects of supporting the literacy learning of linguistically diverse students in school and at home. Journal of Educational Psychology 92.1, 23–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lam, W. S. E. (2000). L2 literacy and the design of the self: A case study of a teenager writing. TESOL Quarterly 34.3, 457–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leyendeckera, B., Jäkel, J., Kademoǧlu, S. O. & Yagmurlu, B. (2011). Parenting practices and pre-schoolers’ cognitive skills in Turkish immigrant and German families. Early Child Development and Care 181.8, 1095–1110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, G. (2000). Family literacy and cultural identity: An ethnographic study of a Filipino family in Canada. McGill Journal of Education 35.1, 9–29.Google Scholar
Li, G. (2001). Literacy as situated practice. Canadian Journal of Education 26.1, 57–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, G. (2003). Literacy, culture, and politics of schooling: Counternarratives of a Chinese Canadian family. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 34.2, 182–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, G. (2004a). Perspectives on struggling English language learners: Case studies of two Chinese-Canadian children. Journal of Literacy Research 36.1, 31–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, G. (2004b). What do parents think? Middle-class Chinese immigrant parents’ perspectives on literacy learning, homework, and school-home communication. The School Community Journal 16.2, 27–46.Google Scholar
Li, G. (2006). Biliteracy and trilingual practices in the home context: Case studies of Chinese-Canadian children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 6.3, 355–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, G. (2007). Second language and literacy learning in school and at home: An ethnographic study of Chinese Canadian first graders’ experiences. Literacy Teaching and Learning 11.2, 1–31.Google Scholar
Li, G. (2010). Race, class, and schooling: Multicultural families doing the hard work of home literacy in America's inner city. Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties 26.2, 140–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, J. (2009). Contrasting models in literacy practice among heritage language learners of Mandarin. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 19.1, 56–75.Google Scholar
Li, Y. (2005). Asian adolescents’ out-of-school encounters with English and Korean literacy. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 15.1, 57–77.Google Scholar
López, E. M., Gallimore, R., Garnier, H. & Reese, L. (2007). Preschool antecedents of mathematics achievement of Latinos: The influence of family resources, early literacy experiences, and preschool attendance. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 29.4, 456–471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lotherington, H. & Eamer, A. (2008). Successful kids from immigrant families: An investigation of the complex multilingual worlds of 10-year-old gifted writers in suburban Toronto. International Journal of Multilingualism 5.2, 100–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lü, C. & Koda, K. (2011). The impact of home language and literacy support on English–Chinese biliteracy acquisition among Chinese heritage language learners. Heritage Language Journal 8.2, 44–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markose, S. & Hellstén, M. (2009). Explaining success and failure in mainstream schooling through the lens of cultural continuities and discontinuities: Two case studies. Language and Education 23.1, 59–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markose, S., Symes, C. & Hellstén, M. (2011). ‘In this country education happen at the home’: Two families in search of the instruments of appropriation for school success. Language and Intercultural Communication 11.3, 248–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayo, A. Y. & Leseman, P. P. M. (2008). Off to a good start?: Vocabulary development and differences in early family and classroom experiences of children from native-Dutch and immigrant families in the Netherlands. Educational and Child Psychology 25.1, 70–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menard-Warwick, J. (2007). Biliteracy and schooling in an extended-family Nicaraguan immigrant household: The sociohistorical construction of parental involvement. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 38.2, 119–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miano, A. A. (2011). Schools reading parents’ worlds: Mexican immigrant mothers building family literacy networks. Multicultural Education 18.2, 30–38.Google Scholar
Oades-Sese, G. V. & Li, Y.-B. (2011). Attachment relationships as predictors of language skills for at-risk bilingual preschool children. Psychology in the School 48.7, 707–722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orellana, M. F. & Reynolds, J. F. (2008). Cultural modeling: Leveraging bilingual skills for school paraphrasing tasks. Reading Research Quarterly 43.1, 48–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pahl, K. (2002). Ephemera, mess and miscellaneous piles: Texts and practices in families. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 2.2, 145–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parke, T., Drury, R., Kenner, C. & Robertson, L. H. (2002). Revealing invisible worlds: Connecting the mainstream with bilingual children's home and community learning. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 2.2, 195–220.Google Scholar
Patterson, J. L. (2002). Relationships of expressive vocabulary to frequency of reading and television experience among bilingual toddlers. Applied Psycholinguistics 23.4, 493–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, K. H. (2009). Genres, contexts, and literacy practices: Literacy brokering among Sudanese refugee families. Reading Research Quarterly 44.3, 256–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, N. J., Kay, S. M. & Brown, A. (2008). Continuity and change in home literacy practices of Hispanic families with preschool children. Early Child Development and Care 178.1, 99–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, K. H. & Moss, A. M. (2011). Television, language, and literacy practices in Sudanese refugee families: ‘I learned how to spell English on Channel 18’. Research in the Teaching of English 45.3, 278–307.Google Scholar
Quiroz, B. G., Snow, C. E. & Zhao, J. (2010). Vocabulary skills of Spanish–English bilinguals: Impact of mother–child language interactions and home language and literacy support. International Journal of Bilingualism 14.4, 379–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raikes, H., Pan, B. A., Luze, G., Tamis-Lemonda, C. S., Brooks-Gunn, J., Tarullo, J. C., Tarullo, L. B., Raikes, H. A. & Rodriguez, E. T. (2006). Mother–child book reading in low-income families: Correlates and outcomes during the first three years of life. Child Development 77.4, 924–953.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, E., Leyva, D., Sparks, A. & Grolnick, W. (2010). Maternal elaborative reminiscing increases low-income children's narrative skills relative to dialogic reading. Early Education and Development 21.3, 318–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, L. & Gallimore, R. (2000). Immigrant Latinos’ cultural model of literacy development: An evolving perspective on home-school discontinuities. American Journal of Education 108.2, 103–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, L., Garnier, H., Gallimore, R. & Goldenberg, C. (2000). Longitudinal analysis of the antecedents of emergent Spanish literacy and middle-school English reading achievement of Spanish-speaking students. American Educational Research Journal 37.3, 633–662.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, L. & Goldenberg, C. (2008). Community literacy resources and home literacy practices among immigrant Latino families. Marriage & Family Review 43.1, 109–139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reyes, I. & Azuara, P. (2008). Emergent biliteracy in young Mexican immigrant children. Reading Research Quarterly 43.4, 374–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riches, C. & Curdt-Christiansen, X.-L. (2010). A tale of two Montréal communities: Parents’ perspectives on their children's language and literacy development in a multilingual context. The Canadian Modern Language Review 66.4, 525–555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ro, Y. F. & Cheatham, G. A. (2009). Biliteracy and bilingual development in a second-generation Korean child: A case study. Journal of Research in Childhood Education 23.3, 290–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, T. A. (2008). Home storybook reading in primary or second language with preschool children: Evidence of equal effectiveness for second-language vocabulary acquisition. Reading Research Quarterly 43.2, 103–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, L. H. (2006). Learning to read ‘properly’ by moving between parallel literacy classes. Language and Education 20.1, 44–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubinstein-Avila, E. (2003). Conversing with Miguel: An adolescent English language leaner struggling with later literacy development. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 47.4, 290–301.Google Scholar
Ryan, A. M. (2005). The effectiveness of the Manchester Even Start program in improving literacy outcomes for preschool Latino students. Journal of Research in Childhood Education 20.1, 15–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarroub, L. K., Pernicek, T. & Sweeney, T. (2007). ‘I was bitten by a scorpion’: Reading in and out of school in a refugee's life. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 50.8, 668–679.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheele, A. F., Leseman, P. P. M. & Mayo, A. Y. (2010). The home language environment of monolingual and bilingual children and their language proficiency. Applied Psycholinguistics 31.1, 117–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, M., Kozminsky, E. & Leikin, M. (2009). Socio-linguistic factors in second language lexical knowledge: The case of second-generation children of Russian-Jewish immigrants in Israel. Language, Culture and Curriculum 22.1, 15–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shany, M., Geva, E. & Melech-Feder, L. (2010). Emergent literacy in children of immigrants coming from a primarily oral literacy culture. Written Language & Literacy 13.1, 24–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silvén, M. & Rubinov, E. (2010). Language and preliteracy skills in bilinguals and monolinguals at preschool age: Effects of exposure to richly inflected speech from birth. Reading and Writing 23.3, 385–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, N. & Johnston, J. (2007). Cross-cultural differences in beliefs and practices that affect the language spoken to children: Mothers with Indian and Western heritage. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 42.4, 445–465.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sneddon, R. (2000). Language and literacy: Children's experiences in multilingual environments. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 4, 265–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sneddon, R. & Martin, P. (2012). Alternative spaces of learning in East London: Opportunities and challenges. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education 6.1, 34–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stavans, A., Olshtain, E. & Goldzweig, G. (2009). Parental perceptions of children's literacy and bilingualism: The case of Ethiopian immigrants in Israel. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 30.2, 111–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sze, C., Chapman, M. & Shi, L. (2009). Functions and genres of ESL children's English writing at home and at school. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 19.1, 30–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tabors, P. O., Roach, K. A. & Snow, C. E. (2001). Home language and literacy environment: Final results. In Dickinson, D. K. & Tabors, P. O. (eds.), 111–138.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. K., Bernhard, J. K., Garg, S. & Cummins, J. (2008). Affirming plural belonging: Building on students’ family-based cultural and linguistic capital through multiliteracies pedagogy. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 8.3, 269–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uchikoshi, Y. (2006). English vocabulary development in bilingual kindergarteners: What are the best predictors? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 9.1, 33–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wason-Ellam, L. (2001). Living against the wind: Pathways chosen by Chinese immigrants. Canadian Ethnic Studies 33.1, 71–101.Google Scholar
Whaley, S. E., Jiang, L., Gomez, J. & Jenks, E. (2011). Literacy promotion for families participating in the Women, Infants and Children program. Pediatrics 127.3, 454–461.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, A. & Gregory, E. (2001). Siblings bridging literacies in multilingual contexts. Journal of Research in Reading 24.3, 248–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wollman-Bonilla, J. E. (2001). Family involvement in early writing instruction. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 1.2, 167–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yi, Y. (2007). Engaging literacy: A biliterate student's composing practices beyond school. Journal of Second Language Writing 16.1, 23–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yi, Y. (2008). Voluntary writing in the heritage language: A study of biliterate Korean-heritage adolescents in the U.S. Heritage Language Journal 6.2, 72–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, D. & Koda, K. (2011). Home literacy environment and word knowledge development: A study of young learners of Chinese as a heritage language. Bilingual Research Journal 34.1, 4–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, J., Pelletier, J. & Doyle, A. (2010). Promising effects of an intervention: Young children's literacy gains and changes in their home literacy activities from a bilingual family literacy program in Canada. Frontiers of Education in China 5.3, 409–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar