Abstract
While the extant literature has highlighted the important contribution of home literacy experiences to early literacy development, limited research has been carried out among children living in postcolonial contexts, where there is a mismatch between the home and school language. Such is the case of Mauritius. The present exploratory case study investigates the home literacy experiences of two groups of Mauritian pre-schoolers. Interviews with the children's mothers indicate that these children are immersed in home environments which value informational and educational reading materials, rather than pleasure reading materials. This preference for a skills orientation, rather than an entertainment approach, to early home literacy experiences is explained by the specificities of the local culture. The social and educational background of interviewed mothers, the gap between language of the home and language of literacy, and local reading and cultural practices all contribute to the didactic nature of the early home literacy experiences.
Notes on contributor
Dr A Mooznah Auleear Owodally is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Mauritius. Her studies in Newcastle and Durham made her conscious of the wealth of her language and literacy experiences, and she became interested in the challenges Mauritian children face as they join school. This interest came home with the arrival of her daughters; she thus started a PhD with the University of Cape Town, investigating the emergent literacy practices of preschool children in multilingual Mauritius. After her PhD, she developed a keen interest in religious literacy practices in multi-religious Mauritius. Her publications relate mainly to these issues.
Notes
1. Studies have been carried out in while middle class American societies (Burgess, Hecht, & Lonigan, Citation2002); low socio-economic status (SES) (African) American communities (Bowey, Citation1995; Britto and Brooks-Gunn, Citation2001; Clements, Reynolds, & Hickey, Citation2004; Dickinson & Snow, Citation1987; Heath, Citation1983; McCormick & Mason, Citation1986; Foster, Lambert, Abbott-Shim, McCarthy, & Franze, Citation2005; Rodriguez et al., Citation2009), in low SES Israeli communities (Aram & Biron, Citation2004; Aram & Levin, Citation2001; Korat, Bachar, & Snapir, Citation2003; Levin, Ravid, & Rapaport, Citation2001; Levin, Patel, Margalit, & Barad, Citation2002), among immigrants in the Netherlands (de Jong & Leseman, Citation2001) and the UK (Gregory & Williams, Citation2003), and refugees in the USA (Walker-Dalhouse & Dalhouse, Citation2009).
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