Examining the Home Learning Environment Practices for Emergent Bilinguals’ Academic Development

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Parent-Family Engagement in Bi-/Multilingual Education (Table 1)

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the general practices of bilingual students’ home learning environments and to compare the variations in the learning environments as a function of parents’ length of stay in the U.S., educational levels, and household income. The data consisted of 959 parents’ responses to a learning environment survey in an independent school district in the U.S., serving a predominantly Hispanic student population. The findings show that parents’ practices of engagement in students’ learning, discussions for students’ future, emotional support, students’ media consumption, disciplinary practice, and support for students’ autonomy vary in multifold ways as a function of their backgrounds. The study discusses the implications of the findings and directions for future research.

Authors

• Hector H. Rivera, Texas A&M University

• Heesun Chang, Texas A&M University

• Yiming Zhu, Texas A&M University

• David Daniel Jimenez, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi

• Mohammad Taheri, Texas A&M University

• mohsen Bemani, Texas A&M University