Authors: Lin Meilian, Zhuo Huimin, Cai Peimiao
Source: Early Childhood Education (Educational Sciences); 2014, Issue 11, General No. 637, p53 – 56.
Type: Journal Article
Subjects: Early childhood education, bilingualism, language development, learning environment, education, pre-school, kindergarten, parent-child communication
Keywords: Singapore, Chinese family, bilingual environment, English-Chinese bilingual
Abstract:
The researchers randomly selected 199 6-year-old children and 128 3-4-year-old children from Chinese families and analyzed the children’s English and Chinese bilingual environment through the survey questionnaires administered to their parents. The results showed that parents with higher English proficiency levels tend to be more willing to communicate with their children in Chinese, but parents’ English proficiency levels were also negatively correlated with the frequency of children’s use of Chinese; children tend to converse with their peers in English; children are more exposed to English learning resources as compared to Chinese learning resources. The researchers recommended that Chinese parents establish and employ scientific bilingual learning methods, create a conducive bilingual learning environment in their families, invest in higher quality Chinese learning resources, and pay increased attention to the children’s learning of Chinese to improve their bilingual communication skills.
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