About this session

Saturday, 10:20 AM - 11:50 AM

Family Practices for Language and Literacy Development of Linguistically Diverse Emergent Bilingual Children

In the U.S., early childhood classrooms see an increasing enrollment of emergent bilingual children with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. However, little is known about how home literacy practices support children’s early language and literacy development across diverse, underrepresented emergent bilingual children. This symposium aims to comprehensively examine family literacy practices and their impact on language and literacy development among emerging bilingual children from diverse linguistic backgrounds (e.g., Spanish, Arabic, Amharic, Tigrignia, Burmese, Somali).

Study 1 reports the implementation of a reading intervention based on a peer-assisted learning strategy for Arab immigrant families to facilitate novice readers’ letter sound fluency, revealing the translanguaging dynamics and caregiver-child interaction. Study 2 demonstrates the cross-language and within-language contribution of home literacy activities to Spanish-English kindergarteners’ language and reading skills in Spanish and English. Study 3 identifies linguistically diverse preschoolers’ frequent engagement with independent writing and parents’ frequent teaching of writing, unveiling the positive relationship between the home writing environment and emerging bilingual preschoolers’ early writing skills. Study 4 reports a systematic review of the impact of Latinx parent-involved shared book reading interventions on Latinx children’s language skills, highlighting the heterogeneity of effect sizes with various moderators. Overall, this symposium identifies critical family literacy practices that provide opportunities for linguistically and culturally diverse children’s language and literacy development in their home language(s) and English in the U.S.

Paper #1
Title	Arabic PALS: How a Reading Intervention Became a Medium for Social Justice
Presenting author	Mai Zaru, Southern Methodist University, Palestine, State of

Paper #2
Title	Exploring the Role of Home Literacy Environment in Language and Literacy Development Among Spanish-English Bilinguals
Presenting author	Jiali Wang, Texas A&M University, United States

Paper #3
Title	Family Writing Environment for Linguistically Diverse Emergent Bilingual Preschoolers in the U.S.: A Preliminary Investigation
Presenting author	Jialin Lai, Texas A&M University, United States

Paper #4
Title	A Systematic Review on Latinx Parent-Involved Shared Reading Interventions and Children’s Language Skills
Presenting author	Cinthia Berenice Herrera, University of Texas At Austin, United States

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Session chair
Jialin Lai, Texas A&M University, United States

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