An‌ ‌Exploratory‌ ‌Study‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌Bilingual‌ ‌Parent-Child‌ ‌Talk‌ ‌During‌ ‌E-book‌ ‌Shared‌ ‌Reading‌

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Language, Communication

Abstract

Research has shown the benefits of social interactions and dialogic reading on children's early language and literacy skills (Coyne et al., 2004; Troseth et al., 2019). To date, this line of research has mainly focused on dialogic reading practices in children’s first language. Parents in English as a foreign language (EFL) settings might experience challenges in their efforts to read English storybooks with their children due to their limited English proficiency. With the proliferation of English storytelling apps, little is known about how parents read English storybooks with their children in EFL settings and how the shared reading experiences of parents and children contribute to children’s learning outcomes. To this end, the current study aims to explore the dynamics of parent-child talk during e-book shared reading in EFL home settings. The following research questions guide our study design and analysis:
1. In shared e-book reading in EFL settings, how can parent and child talk be described in both the L1 and L2 in terms of the total number of utterances, total number of words and total number of unique words?
2. In shared e-book reading in EFL settings, what is the topic of parent-child talk (story-related, attention-behavior directing talk, technology related or off-topic talk)?
3. To what extent do the parent-child talk variables correlate with children’s and parents’ English skills and children’s story comprehension scores?
In this study, we will conduct a post-hoc analysis using the video observation data and test scores collected for another study. In total, 12 parents from China read a multimedia interactive e-book with their children at home. During the shared reading sessions, parents read a narrated English e-book with their children multiple times but only videos of the first reading session will be analyzed. Measures include children’s English letter word knowledge, English speaking, and story comprehension.
We have completed data collection for 8 parent-child dyads which yielded a total of 322 minutes of videos (ranging 16-80 min). All videos will be transcribed using CHAT (MacWhinney, 2000), and CLAN will be used to compute the number of utterances in both languages, as well as linguistic diversity. Descriptive analysis and correlational analysis will be conducted using STATA. Data collection will be completed by October; transcription and analysis will be completed in December 2020.
For this exploratory study, we hypothesize that the quantity of English parent-child talk will be positively correlated with parents’ and children’s English skills, and the amount and quality of talk will be positively correlated with children’s comprehension. We also hypothesize that story-related talk will be positively correlated with children’s comprehension while attention-behavior directing talk, technology-related, and off-topic talk will be negatively correlated with children’s comprehension. Our findings will provide insight into the dynamics of parent-child interactions during the shared-reading of English storybooks in EFL settings, which have implications for designing e-books to promote English learning in international contexts.

Authors

• Zhanpeng Zheng, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Bolun Sun, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Xinyi Zeng, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kexing He, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Fangyuan Xu, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Xiaohan Ma, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tongya Jia, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dandan Yang, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Penelope Collins, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author