Reading to Bilingual Children: The Role of Language Dominance in Word Learning and Family Reading Practices

• In Event: From Text to Context: Storybooks as a Platform for Dual-Language Learning

Abstract

Introduction
Many children around the world grow up acquiring two languages (Byers-Heinlein & Lew-Williams, 2013; Kremin et al., 2019). Bilingual children and their families typically have a dominant, stronger language, and a non-dominant, weaker language. Yet, little is known about how children learn words from storybooks in each of these languages, and how parents use these languages in home literacy settings. In two studies with a sample of 5-year-old French-English bilingual children and their families, we examined how language dominance interacts with children’s word learning during shared storybook reading (Study 1) and family home literary practices (Study 2).
Hypotheses
In Study 1, we hypothesized that language dominance would affect word learning and would interact with book format. For example, bilingual books may increase children’s learning in their non-dominant language, but not in their dominant language. In Study 2, we hypothesized that family language dominance would be associated with home reading practices, with greater emphasis being provided to the dominant language.
Methods
Sixty-seven 5-year-olds (age range: 60 – 72 months) and their parents (86% mothers) participated in the study. Participants were recruited in Montréal, Québec, Canada, a bilingual city where both languages are spoken in everyday life and have similar sociolinguistic status, providing a unique opportunity to isolate language dominance from language status.
In Study 1, bilingual children, who were highly proficient in both their dominant and non-dominant language, and second-language learners, who were highly proficient in their dominant language, but had limited proficiency in their non-dominant language, were randomly assigned to hear a story from one of two book formats: 1) two single-language books, one entirely in English, and one entirely in French, or 2) one bilingual book, with equivalent English and French sentences together on each page. Word learning was assessed via a pointing task in which children were asked to identify five novel objects presented in the storybook(s). In Study 2, families’ reading practices were examined using a questionnaire about the home reading environment, parent reading behaviors, and child literacy development across the families’ dominant and non-dominant languages.
Results
In Study 1, children were successful at learning words in both languages, with no significant differences nor interactions depending on language dominance, language proficiency, nor book format (see Table 1). In Study 2, bilingual families allocated more time and resources to home literacy activities in the family’s dominant language (see Table 2).
Conclusions
Taken together, these results suggest that though language dominance may not affect word learning in situations where there is balanced exposure to both languages, families often favor home reading activities in the dominant language. Thus, supporting enriched home reading practices in bilingual families’ non-dominant language may be particularly important. After all, many bilingual families wish to transmit literacy skills to their children in both languages, but may not be aware that they are supporting one language more than the other.

Authors

• Melanie Brouillard, Concordia University
  Presenting Author

• Ana Maria Gonzalez-Barrero, Dalhousie University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Krista Byers-Heinlein, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author