Early Developmental Skills of Diverse Dual Language Learners: The Roles of Home Language Use, Cultural Heritage, Maternal Immigration, and Sociodemographics in the ECLS-B (original) (raw)
Related papers
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2014
Using nationally representative data from the ECLS-B, we examined children's outcomes and growth from 9 to 65 months as a function of language used in the home at 24 months (English only n = 7300; English and another language n = 1500; other language only n = 400). We also examined whether demographic variables moderated the effects of DLL status in predicting child outcomes. Results revealed substantial variation within the DLL population within and across language groups in immigration status, heritage country, child outcomes, and family socioeconomic risk. DLL status was associated with differential outcomes, gains over time, and processes in complex ways. Maternal birth outside of the U.S., child gender, and parental education moderated relations between home language and child outcomes. Use of the heritage language at home served as a protective factor for children of immigrant families for a few outcomes. Gender and parental education were more strongly associated with child outcomes among English-speaking households than among DLLs.
Although quality center-based child care is helpful in promoting school readiness for dual language learners (DLLs), little is known about the nonparental child care that young DLL children experience. DLL status is often confounded with immigrant status, ethnicity, and poverty. Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort, we examined child care experiences with repeated cross-sectional analyses at 9, 24, and 52 months for DLL and non-DLL children. After accounting for demographic and contextual factors, we found few differences in the quality and type of child care experienced by DLL children and children who hear only English in the home. Child care experiences were more related to country of origin, ethnicity, or immigrant status than DLL status. Nonparental caregivers were more likely to speak the child’s home language in home-based care than center care. Findings illustrate the importance of distinguishing among DLL status, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, country of origin, and immigrant status when considering the child care experiences of DLLs.
2013
Children of immigrants experience unique cultural, linguistic, and parenting contexts that influence their development and kindergarten readiness. Young Dual Language Learners (DLLs) are significantly less likely to attend high-quality early childhood education programs than their peers who speak only English. Yet enrollment in such programs can yield significant benefits for their kindergarten readiness and later achievement. This report contributes to the effort to identify the specific features of early childhood education programs that most effectively support DLLs. It offers a profile of DLLs, who are identified as children learning more than one language at the same time. Most (but not all) DLLs are children of immigrants, and parental language proficiency is one of the many factors that influences their developmental and academic outcomes. A detailed look at the patterns of achievement among this group highlights the varied outcomes across children from different national origins and socioeconomic groups. For example, DLLs from Spanishspeaking households enter kindergarten with substantially lower literacy skills than those of children from English-speaking households, and the gap between the two groups improves only slightly by the end of third grade. In particular, at every testing period and by all achievement indices, children from Mexican immigrant families score significantly below national norms. Given these achievement patterns, the report evaluates the research on early care and education approaches that have been shown to support higher levels of language and literacy development and achievement for young DLLs. The instructional features of high-quality programs that have been shown to improve school readiness among this population include responsive language interactions in English as well as the students' home languages, opportunities for children to learn and practice new skills and vocabulary, frequent assessment, and parental engagement. The report emphasizes that these goals are common-sense and attainable, arguing that while all teachers cannot teach in all languages, they can support all languages by learning strategies to systematically introduce English during the preschool years while simultaneously promoting home language maintenance. Young Dual Language Learners (DLLs) are significantly less likely to attend high-quality early childhood education programs than their peers who speak only English.
Dual language children enter school with varying levels of proficiencies in their first and second language. This study of Latino children of immigrants (N = 163) analyzes their dual language profiles at kindergarten and second grade, derived from the direct assessment of Spanish and English proficiencies (Woodcock Language Proficiency Batteries-Revised). Children were grouped based on the similarity of language profiles (competent profiles, such as dual proficient, Spanish proficient, and English proficient; and low-performing profiles, including borderline proficient and limited proficient). At kindergarten, the majority of children (63%) demonstrated a low-performing profile; by second grade, however, the majority of children (64%) had competent profiles. Change and stability of language profiles over time of individual children were then analyzed. Of concern, are children who continued to demonstrate a low-performing, high-risk profile. Factors in the linguistic environments at school and home, as well as other family and child factors associated with dual language profiles and change/stability over time were examined, with a particular focus on the persistently low-performing profile groups.
Research examining monolingual children’s acquisition demonstrates that children’s language development is intricately connected to the linguistic input they receive. However, their input varies on an individual basis; input is shaped by the broader social context in which they live (environment). Thus far, few studies have empirically investigated interdependencies between environment and linguistic input for bilingual children. To address this knowledge gap, this study uses a social interactionist approach to explicitly examine the relationship between the linguistic input child second language (L2) learners receive and their mothers’ level of education. It is generally assumed that higher levels of maternal education will be associated with increased language abilities in children because mothers with higher levels of education provide their children with more linguistic input. This assumption, however, is based largely on studies about monolingual children. Existing research suggests that the relationship between maternal education and linguistic input is more complicated for child L2 learners. For example, some researchers have proposed that higher maternal education is associated with more first language (L1) input and less L2 input but others have suggested the opposite effect. Such discrepancies highlight the need to better understand the interdependencies between maternal education and linguistic input. The specific research questions asked in this thesis are: (RQ1) Is maternal education a determinant of children’s L1 and L2 development? If so, are higher levels of education associated with higher language scores? (RQ2) Does maternal education impact the linguistic input migrant children receive at home? If so, does maternal education have the same effect on the linguistic input provided to immigrant compared to refugee children? (RQ3) Besides maternal education, what other variables influence the linguistic input children receive at home? (RQ4) Do these intermediary environment and input factors determine children’s L1 and L2 development? And, (RQ5) Do the results presented to address Question 1 align with the results presented to address Questions 2, 3 and 4? Participants were 89 immigrant/refugee children, living in Canada with diverse L1s. They completed an English story-telling task. Their parents also answered detailed questions about L1 development, as well as demographic and linguistic input information. Regression modelling revealed that relative quantity of language use by the mother (input), the siblings (input) and the child (output) positively influenced children’s L1 and L2 development. Additionally, maternal L2 fluency and months of exposure to English at school (a cumulative input variable) had a positive impact on L2 scores. Maternal education was related to children’s input but the direction of the relationship depended on immigration status. For immigrant families, higher levels of education were associated with less English use. In the refugee group, higher levels of education were associated with more English use. Thus, as one example of interdependencies in bilingual acquisition, this study revealed a complex relationship between immigration status, maternal education, linguistic input and children’s bilingual development. Such interdependencies highlight the fact that children’s language development must be considered within the complex system of children’s specific circumstances. For each child, environment- and input-level variables are interwoven to produce an individualized learning context. As a consequence, it is not simply variation in individual variables that underlies individual differences in bilingual children’s emerging abilities; variation in the interdependencies between variables is also fundamental to the process of acquisition.
Early Education and Development, 2015
Research Findings-This study explored the relations between Spanish-English dual language learner (DLL) children's home language and literacy experiences and their expressive vocabulary and oral comprehension abilities in Spanish and in English. Data from Spanish-English mothers of 93 preschool-age Head Start children who resided in central Pennsylvania were analyzed. Children completed the Picture Vocabulary and Oral Comprehension subtests of the Batería III Woodcock-Muñoz and the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement. Results revealed that the language spoken by mothers and children and the frequency of mother-child reading at home influenced children's Spanish language abilities. In addition, the frequency with which children told a story was positively related to children's performance on English oral language measures. Practice or Policy-The findings suggest that language and literacy experiences at home have a differential impact on DLLs' language abilities in their 2 languages. Specific components of the home environment that benefit and support DLL children's language abilities are discussed. Over the past decade, dual language learners (DLLs) have been the fastest growing student population in U.S. schools (National Center for Education Statistics, 2004, 2010). In early childhood education, the enrollment of DLLs is also striking. Currently, DLLs make up approximately 30% of Head Start students, with 80% of those children coming from Spanish-speaking homes (Mathematica Policy Research Institute, 2010). Spanish-English DLLs are a heterogeneous group of children whose varied experiences with their two languages impact their abilities in those languages. Some of these children learn two languages from birth, others may be exposed to English before school, and still others may not be exposed to English until they enter school. These differences in language exposure contribute to the wide variations in the Spanish and English language abilities found within CONTACT Kandia Lewis
Early bilingualism: children of immigrants in an English-language childcare center
Psychology of Language and Communication, 2008
In this study, language views and home language practice of sixteen immigrant parents were documented and related to the dual language behaviors of their young children (ages 1:09 to 3;06) who were enrolled in a Toronto English-language childcare center. De Houwer's (1999) model of early bilingualism was applied to the minority language context and external factors were used to explain the short-lived active bilingualism of the younger children and the passive bilingualism of the preschoolers. Presenting mothers and fathers with separate questionnaires proved to be a valuable methodological tool, which revealed similar language thinking but different home language practice. Immigrant mothers were more committed to their children's L1 development than were fathers, a finding, which supports and extends the parental gender difference noted in earlier work Lyon & Ellis, 1999). Negative effects of early L2 exposure on minority language children's incomplete L1, reported in earlier studies, were confirmed. A concrete outcome of the present study was the creation mylanguage.ca, a website intended to help immigrant parents understand their children's dual language learning. Even though the study presents a somewhat bleak picture of the continuation of L1, it concludes on an optimistic note, encouraging immigrant fathers to join forces with their L1committed spouses and to help provide a nurturing L1 environment for their young children.
Language Specificity in the Relation of Maternal Education to Bilingual Children's Vocabulary Growth
Developmental psychology, 2017
The robust relation between maternal education and child language that is observed in monolingual populations has not been reliably replicated among bilingual children from immigrant families in the United States. We hypothesized that a variable that operates in immigrant populations-the language in which mothers achieved their highest level of education, is relevant to the benefits of maternal education to children's language growth. The participants were 92 U.S.-born bilingually developing children (47 boys, 45 girls) with native Spanish-speaking immigrant mothers. The mothers varied both in their level of education and in the language (English or Spanish) in which they had achieved their highest level of education. The children's expressive vocabulary in English and Spanish was assessed at 6-month intervals between 30 and 60 months. Four sets of multilevel models, which included estimates of children's relative amount of input in each language and mothers' age of ...
Child Care Experiences Among Dual Language Learners in the United States
AERA Open
Although quality center-based child care is helpful in promoting school readiness for dual language learners (DLLs), little is known about the nonparental child care that young DLL children experience. DLL status is often confounded with immigrant status, ethnicity, and poverty. Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, we examined child care experiences with repeated cross-sectional analyses at 9, 24, and 52 months for DLL and non-DLL children. After accounting for demographic and contextual factors, we found few differences in the quality and type of child care experienced by DLL children and children who hear only English in the home. Child care experiences were more related to country of origin, ethnicity, or immigrant status than DLL status. Nonparental caregivers were more likely to speak the child's home language in home-based care than center care. Findings illustrate the importance of distinguishing among DLL status, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, country of origin, and immigrant status when considering the child care experiences of DLLs.