Variability in Community Characteristics and Spanish-Speaking Children's Home Language and Literacy Opportunities
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Drawing on data from 14 communities in California and Texas, this paper examines the variability in language and literacy resources across communities with large numbers of Latino children and families. Spanish-speaking children live in communities that vary considerably with respect to language use, ethnic composition, and education levels. These children experience varied exposure to English and Spanish language use in the community, and variation in terms of access to print materials in one or both languages. Immigrant Spanish-speaking families residing in these communities also demonstrate a great deal of variation with respect to the literacy practices of families in the home. However, community level characteristics only modestly predict a few aspects of children's language and literacy experiences. While this suggests that community characteristics can have some influence on these children's language and literacy opportunities (relative to Spanish-speaking children in other communities) the weak associations also show that educators should not presume to know children's home language and literacy experiences based on observable community characteristics. Indeed, variability within communities was greater than variability across communities. Overall, school-related literacy was the most common and frequent type of literacy activity in the home. Schools provided literacy materials and activities to families in communities where they were lacking, thereby helping compensate for an overall scarcity of literacy opportunities for children in the low income communities in which they resided.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | 2008 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Reese, Leslie | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Thompson, Sylvia Linan | |
| Author | Goldenberg, Claude | |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
Subjects
| Subject | bilingualism |
|---|---|
| Subject | communities |
| Subject | Latinos |
| Subject | literacy practices |
| Subject | Spanish language use |
| Genre | Article |
Bibliographic information
| Related Publication | Reese, L., Thompson, S. & Goldenberg, C. (2008). Variability in community characteristics and Spanish-speaking children's home language and literacy opportunities. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 29, 271 - 290. |
|---|---|
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/cp480hb5328 |
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- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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Graduate School of Education Open Archive
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