Parent Acculturation and Head Start DLL Preschoolers' Oral Proficiency

• In Event: Dual Language Learners’ school readiness skills, classroom experiences, and parental influences in early childhood settings

Abstract

Parents play an important role in passing their cultural and language knowledge of their heritage to their DLL children as they engage them in sociocultural practices that are based on their cultural values (Rogoff, 2003; Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2019). In particular, prior research suggests that parental acculturation plays an important role in children’s language proficiency (Liu et al., 2009; Quiroz et al., 2010). Yet, few studies have examined the roles of parental acculturation and parental language proficiency on child achievement in the early childhood years. As preschool oral language skills have been shown to predict future academic achievement (e.g. Kendeou et al., 2009; Snow et al., 1998), it is critical to understand the associations among parental acculturation, parental language proficiency, and bilingual oral proficiency with young dual language learners (DLLs). Furthermore, few studies have examined different immigrant groups from the same areas to understand possible similarities and differences between groups.

To address these gaps, this study will examine these topics with two of the largest and fastest-growing immigrant populations in the U.S. (Park et al. 2017). Two research questions will be addressed: (1) What are the levels of acculturation for first generation Chinese-American and Mexican-American parents whose children are enrolled in Head Start?; and (2) What are the relations between parent acculturation and DLLs’ oral proficiency? We hypothesized that parents will maintain their heritage language (HL) and that DLLs with parents who show positive attitudes towards their heritage culture will have stronger HL oral proficiency.

The study recruited a total of 120 DLLs (55 Mexican-American and 65 Chinese-American) enrolled in Head Start centers in Northern California. Parents were interviewed on acculturation and language proficiency measures using the adapted Parent Ethnic Identity (Zea et al., 2003), Family Ethnic Socialization Scale (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2013), and Cultural and Social Acculturation Scale (Chen & Lee, 1996; Chen & Tse, 2010). DLLs were assessed on oral language measures in both HL and English with the picture vocabulary, oral comprehension, and understanding directions subtests of the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Oral Language IV (Schrank et al., 2014).

One-way ANOVA results showed no significant differences between Mexican-American and Chinese-American parents on their acculturation levels. Similarly, no significant differences were found in the bilingual oral proficiencies between Mexican-American and Chinese-American DLLs. Cluster analysis results identified four new groups of DLLs based on their language oral proficiency in each language: high proficiency in both, low proficiency in both, English-dominant, and HL-dominant. The parents of English-dominant children had significantly higher levels of American identity than the parents of children with high proficiency in both languages. The parents of English-dominant children had significantly lower heritage language proficiency than the parents of children who had low proficiency in both languages. These results suggest that parental identity and heritage language proficiency may play a role in their children’s bilingual oral proficiency. Implications for children and families from Mexican and Chinese cultures will follow.

Authors

• Mayu Lindblad, University of California - Davis
  Presenting Author

• Cecilia Plascencia, University of California - Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Helen Tran, University of California - Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hallie Yu, University of California - Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Krystal Jane Salugao Bautista, University of California - Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Qing Zhou, University of California - Berkeley
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yuuko Uchikoshi, University of California - Davis
  Non-Presenting Author