Family and Home Literacy Practices: Mediating Factors for Preliterate English Learners at Risk.

This paper reports the initial findings of a survey of family and home literacy factors that may influence the development of phonological awareness skills for preliterate English learners during the acquisition phase of reading development in a second language (L2). Preliminary findings are from the first year of a 3-year longitudinal study of the effects of early intervention phonological skills training for low performing, preliterate English learners in their first language (L1) to promote cross-language transfer to L2 reading abilities. Family and home literacy survey data were collected from 247 families of kindergarten students enrolled in 13 English-only and/or bilingual "Spanish/English" classrooms in 3 public schools in Southern California. Preliminary analyses revealed that Spanish was the predominant language across family and home contexts. While socioeconomic status and parent education levels were generally low, families were involved in early literacy activities at home. There was a variation in the emphases families placed on the type of literacy activities and the frequency of family literacy engagement with their child. The results revealed high paternal aspirations for their children's reading and academic achievement in Spanish and English. There were statistically significant differences between the family ratings of importance for their children's language and literacy achievement in Spanish and English. (Contains 11 references and 5 tables) (Author/KFT)