Bilingual families and the home literacy environment: An examination of English and ethnic language activities and outcomes.

Background: Accumulating evidence shows that the home literacy environment (HLE) has a potent and early influence on children's language and literacy development. However, there is a more limited understanding of HLE and its contribution to children's outcomes for simultaneous bilingual children exposed to two languages at home, particularly in the Asian context. Methods: In this study with 801 six‐year‐old bilingual learners, HLE and language and literacy outcomes were examined in two languages. Children were assessed in their receptive vocabulary, reading and spelling abilities for English plus their ethnic Asian language (Mandarin Chinese, Malay or Tamil) for a subsample of 374 children. Results: Results from factor analyses suggest that HLE for each language within families had a different latent structure, with three to four factors for English (parent involvement, parent habit, child exploration and shared reading) and three factors for the Asian language (parent involvement, parent habit and child interest). Further path analyses show that shared reading had a negative contribution to English outcomes but a positive influence on Asian language outcomes. Conclusions: Findings extend existing understanding of HLE structure for bilingual language learners from bilingual families. HLE components contributed differently to bilingual language outcomes, with positive contributions of child exploration to English outcomes and of parent habits including shared reading to Asian language outcomes. Negative relationships for shared reading to English outcomes are also evident and suggest that further research on the long‐term effects of HLE is needed. Highlights: What is already known about this topic The home literacy environment (HLE) impacts child language and literacy development.There are similarities and uniqueness in HLE across cultural and language contexts.Informal and formal home literacy activities relate differentially to child outcomes. What this paper adds Bilingual families structure the HLE differently across their two languages.HLE factors affect bilingual children's language outcomes differentially, reflecting the broader cultural and educational context. Implications for theory, policy or practice Shared book reading may support children's language and literacy growth up to a point when they start to read independently.Home literacy activities in bilingual children's weaker or nondominant language are recommended in order to increase their proficiencies.Providing time and resources to build children's interest in independent literacy activities may further their literacy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]