The relationship among home language use, parental beliefs, and Spanish-speaking children's vocabulary

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the relationship among home language use, parents’ beliefs about dual language development, and Spanish-speaking children's vocabulary knowledge. Parents (n = 162) completed a questionnaire about their home language use and beliefs about dual language development, and elementary-age children (N = 190) – Kindergarten (M_age = 5.71, SD = .56), second grade (M_age = 7.52, SD = .31), and fourth grade (M_age = 9.35, SD = .45) – completed conceptually-scored vocabulary assessments. Principal component analyses revealed that Spanish-speaking parents’ beliefs about dual language development are heterogeneous. Further, parents’ beliefs can be characterized differently according to their children's English proficiency designations and grade levels. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that the Bilingual Facility parental belief factor was associated with home language use practices, which in turn were associated with children's vocabulary. However, this association only applied to limited English proficient students and their parents. These results underscore the importance of attending to Spanish-speaking parents’ beliefs, as they appear to relate to home language use practices and, importantly, they also relate to their children's vocabulary achievement.

KEYWORDS:

• Dual language learners
• conceptually-scored vocabulary
• parental beliefs
• home language use

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development to Vanderbilt University [grant number P20 HD075443]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development or the National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development to Vanderbilt University [grant number P20 HD075443].

Notes on contributors

Jin Kyoung Hwang

Jin Kyoung Hwang is an Assistant Project Scientist in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. She received Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine. Her research centers on understanding and improving language and literacy development of school-aged dual language learners through research-based interventions using quantitative methods. Specifically, she is interested in understanding the heterogeneity of dual language learners and student by instruction interaction effects on their language and literacy outcomes.

Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez

Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. Her program of research is focused on advancing students’ language and reading comprehension outcomes, including those of students from Spanish-speaking, low-income homes. The studies she is engaged in focus on the central role of supporting students’ language comprehension to mitigate later reading comprehension difficulties.

Israel Flores

Israel Flores is a doctoral candidate in Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. His primary line of research explores the symbolic development of very young children, specifically how they come to understand and learn from representational artifacts like digital media. He is especially interested in the role that technology can take in supporting the language outcomes of children navigating multiple languages.

Janna Brown McClain

Janna Brown McClain is a doctoral candidate in language, literacy, and culture at Peabody College of Education, Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on teachers’ sense-making about the language demands of the classroom, including their understanding of curricular demands as well as responsiveness to the linguistic diversity in their classrooms.