Biliteracy differences between Singapore and immigrant Chinese families

Li, R. (2012). Home biliteracy practices and biliteracy acquisition: A comparative study of Singaporean Chinese families and recent immigrant families from China (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://libris.nie.edu.sg/

Background

This study was undertaken to provide more insight into early English-Chinese biliteracy and to examine the educational needs of Chinese immigrants in Singapore.

Aims

This study (1) compared the family English-Chinese (Mandarin) biliteracy environments of children from Singapore Chinese families and immigrant families from China and (2) investigated their subsequent impact on the children’s biliteracy acquisition and school performance.

Sample

Three middle-class Singaporean and three middle-class immigrant families participated in the study. In the case of all six families, both parents had a first degree or higher.

Method

Data were collected both at the participants’ homes and schools. Data sources included field notes, semi-structured interviews with the parents, informal interviews, documents and artefacts, a research journal, and several language tests administered to the children in both English and Chinese.

Findings

The findings challenged the impression of homogeneity in the parenting practices of ethnically Chinese families with differences between and within the two nationality groupings. For example, while both Singaporean and immigrant parents saw merit in Singapore’s bilingual education, their choice of dominant language at home reflected different proficiency in and attitudes towards the two languages. Immigrant families were generally disadvantaged, especially in their communication with school personnel and local community members. In both kinds of family, the mother played a much greater part in childcare than the father.

The parents’ attitudes towards parenting and home literacy varied with their educational level. Bachelors-holding parents were more actively involved and restrictive in their children’s education choices and more selective of the biliteracy experiences their children were exposed to at home. Higher qualification-holding parents (i.e. masters and doctorates) were less concerned with reinforcing school learning at home and emphasised a carefree childhood. These differences extended to the parents’ choice of primary schools and their educational expectations for their children.

Implications

The author suggested that schools should build on family literacy practices, and that immigrant parents should actively involve themselves in the community and school.

Original article retrieved from NIE Digital Repository.