Parental teaching through play and emergent literacy skills in English among Hong Kong Chinese ESL children: A pilot study

It is well established that various forms of home literacy practices, such as shared book reading and teaching of literacy-related skills, are significantly associated with children’s literacy development. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the effects of parental teaching of language and literacy through play on English emergent literacy skills among Hong Kong Chinese kindergarteners who learn English-as-a-second-language (ESL). Sixty parents (father or mother) will be recruited and randomly assigned to either the experimental group (training on early language and literacy play skills) or the control group (no training). The effects of the target training on their skills in conducting language and literacy play at home will be examined. After the training, parents will be asked to implement language and literacy play at home for 2 months and fill out play record. Their kindergarten child will be assessed on emergent literacy skills in English before and after the implementation of play at home. Parents will be asked to fill out a questionnaire on their home literacy practices in English. Findings of this study would shed light on the significance of home literacy practices in emergent literacy skills among ESL children and future research and practices of family literacy program.

Funding Source: HK Others - Departmental Research Fund^^