Poster #50 - How Latinx parent-child dyads use two languages during booksharing when reading monolingual vs. bilingual books

• In Event: Poster Session 15

Abstract

Shared reading is a powerful tool for promoting early language and literacy development. However, there is limited research on bilingual parents’ language use when reading with their children and on how this might change when reading monolingual vs. bilingual books. Work examining bilingual parental language use in conversational and play settings suggests that parents use both languages frequently (Bail et al., 2015; Kremin et al., 2022). In addition, one survey study with French-English bilinguals in Canada found that the language in which parents read affected the nature of booksharing interactions with their children (Gonzalez-Barrero et al., 2020), yet this has not been investigated in observational studies. In addition, bilingual parents and children often mix languages (i.e., code-switch), but it is unknown whether the language of the book influences patterns of language mixing. The present study examines: 1) How does reading a bilingual vs a monolingual book affect the amount of parental Spanish language use in Latinx families? 2) How does reading a bilingual vs. a monolingual book affect the characteristics of parental extra-textual talk (e.g., lexical diversity, sentence complexity) in English and Spanish? 3) How does reading a bilingual vs a monolingual book affect the frequency and types of code-switches in these interactions?

We present a within-subjects analyses of preliminary data from 10 bilingual parent-child dyads (15 additional parent-child dyads are currently enrolled and will have been analyzed by the conference date). Dyads participated in booksharing observations over zoom when children were 3-4 years old. Dyads shared two books: One monolingual (English-only) and one bilingual (English-Spanish) book. Book type and order was counterbalanced across participants. Interactions were transcribed and analyzed using SALT for amount (tokens), lexical diversity (types), and sentence complexity (MLU) in parental extra-textual talk. We also coded four types of code-switches using ELAN (see Table for code-switch types and definitions) and computed the frequency of each.

There was no significant difference in the proportion of parental Spanish tokens by book type, suggesting book type did not affect the amount of Spanish. However, parents used a higher proportion of Spanish word types when sharing the bilingual vs the monolingual book (MBil = .197, MMono = .150, p = .06), showing differences in lexical diversity. Parents had higher MLU in Spanish (MBil = 5.751, MMono = 4.251) than in English (MBil = 1.814, MMono = 1.967) overall, (p = .04) especially for the bilingual book (book x language interaction, p = .08) (Figure). Code-switching occurred in 86% of observations with the bilingual book and 57% of observations with the monolingual book (p<.05). Intra-sentential code-switches (e.g., Mira el dinosaur) were the most common type of code-switch and were significantly higher with the bilingual than monolingual book.

Together, these findings suggest that Latinx parents in the U.S. use both languages when reading books with their children. The type of book also influences code-switching patterns and characteristics of parental language use. These findings have implications for supporting dual language development in different contexts, such as the home and school environments, through booksharing interactions.

Authors

• Alejandra Reinoso, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author

• Milton Guendica

• Maria Mendoza

• Adriana Weisleder, Northwestern University