Poster #69 - Parental Perceptions of Bilingualism and Home Language Oral Proficiency Among Low-Income Dual Language Learners

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Previous research has determined that experiences and exposure in the microsystem serve as proximal influences on child development, including language and literacy. DLLs, especially those from immigrant families in the United States, risk losing their home language as they gradually shift to speaking English as they grow up. Given the potential benefits of bilingualism on children’s cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional development, it is crucial to maintain children’s home language to foster bilingual development. The current literature suggests that parental beliefs toward bilingualism and the language and literacy environment are linked to children’s language development. Parents particularly play a significant role in home language maintenance in immigrant households. With the growing number of dual language learners (DLLs) living in the United States, little is known about what parental beliefs about bilingualism of their children are integrated into these bilingual households and parents’ role in children’s home language maintenance. The present study addresses the gap in the literature by investigating low-income immigrant families, specifically Chinese American and Mexican American families, and exploring the parental perceptions of children’s bilingual language learning. Further, the present study examines the relations among parental perception of bilingualism, home language and literacy practices, and home language oral proficiency.
Data were collected from a total of 41 Mexican American and 91 Chinese American low-income immigrant families with DLLs ages 50 to 88 months who had been recruited from Head Start programs and state-funded preschools in Northern California when the children were three to four years old. Information about parents’ shared reading frequency, home language exposure and usage, and parental perceptions of bilingualism (Luk & Surrain, 2019) was collected through parental interviews, and DLLs’ home language oral proficiency was individually assessed using the Picture Vocabulary subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Oral Language (Shrank et al., 2014). No significant difference in home language Picture Vocabulary was observed between the Mexican American and Chinese American groups. Principal components analyses on the parental perceptions of bilingualism measure revealed two components, “Important to be Bilingual” and “English over Bilingualism.” Multiple regression analysis results show that “Important to be Bilingual” was associated with children’s home language oral proficiency after controlling for culture, child age, the frequency of home language shared book reading, and child home language exposure and use. The results show that parents’ positive beliefs with regard to bilingualism are related to the children’s use of that language and further improve their children’s language outcomes. The study suggests that immigrant parents who support bilingualism and desire their DLL children to maintain the home language should encourage language and literacy practices that provide reading and language use opportunities in the home language.

Authors

• Emily Mak, University of California - Davis
  Presenting Author

• Natasha Nichiporuk Vanni

• Xintong Yang

• Maria Lara

• Qing Zhou, University of California - Berkeley

• Yuuko Uchikoshi, University of California - Davis