Relations Between Indian Children's Home Literacy Environment and Their English Oral Language and Literacy Skills

Abstract

More than 90 million Indian children are becoming literate in English, yet the home literacy environment for Indian children learning English has not been explored. Preschool children (N = 50) from Bangalore, India, were assessed for vocabulary, phonological awareness, and print skills in English, their language of schooling. Parents reported on the home literacy environment via questionnaires and a children's book title checklist, adapted for an Indian sample. Parents' book-reading practices moderated the role of English in the home in predicting children's English receptive vocabulary, such that high levels of book reading compensated for low ambient levels of English in the home. English in the home also predicted children's phonological awareness, whereas parental book reading and teaching of print both predicted children's print skills. Implications for the role of book reading in families learning English as a second language are discussed.

Notes

¹The Annual Report (2005) from the Department of Education, Government of India, estimates that there are approximately 300 million children in India younger than 18 with a literacy rate of 64.8%, which means at least 190 million of the children's population in the country is literate. A conservative estimate is that about half this number is being educated in English (Krishnasawmy & Burde, 1998), which in real numbers could be up to 95 million.

^a1 = less than 1,12,500 rupees ($2,500)/year, 2 = up to 3,37,500 rupees ($7,500)/year, 3 = up to 5,62,500 rupees ($12,500)/year, 4 = more than 5,62,500 rupees($12,500)/year.

^b1 = high school, 2 = college degree, 3 = master's/equivalent.

^c1 = never, 2 = 1 to 2 times, 3 = 3 to 5 times, 4 = 6 to 7 times.

^d1 = never, 2 = seldom, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = very often.

²The CTCL-I is available from the first author and can also be obtained in Kalia (2008).

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