Language Outcomes of Preschoolers in Rural China

• In Event: Knowledge and Care: Language Equity for Rural Students

Abstract

There are 70 million left-behind (LBC) children in China; children that have one or more parents working far from home for over 3 months at a time, typically in rural areas. Few studies examine intersectionalites between gender, ethnicity, and parental status, so this research compares language acquisition outcomes, controlling for parental status, parental education, gender, income, siblings and ethnicity between preschool LBC and non-LBC in a preschool in rural China (117 preschool classes and 860 children). Secondary data with receptive and productive Mandarin as well as family variables like income, siblings, parental education was analyzed using a multivariate regression model. Differences in language outcomes for different groups of LBC and significance to further early-childhood education in rural China are discussed.

Authors

• Shan Zhang, Harvard University

• Sawyer Hogenkamp, University of California - Los Angeles