Chinese Immigrant Families and Bilingualism Among Young Children

Abstract

Thirty-five children (17 boys and 18 girls, 4 to 8 years old) in 2-parent Chinese immigrant families had attended English-speaking facilities for 35.0 months (boys) and 32.9 months (girls), respectively. They were tested at home with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Revised (PPVT-R) and the Mandarin version of PPVT-R. No gender differences were found. Maternal English PPVT-R vocabulary (M = 112.9) correlated positively with child PPVT-R scores (r = . 35, p = . 04). The longer the children attended English-only educational facilities, the higher were their English PPVT-R scores (r = .327, p = .059), even when controlling for maternal scores. Children (n = 12) who had spent about 2 years (22 to 26 months) in English-speaking educational facilities had English PPVT-R standardized scores (M = 94.8, range = 71–110) close to the average (M = 100) score of English monolinguals. Chinese receptive language scores increased during the preschool years and were normative with monolingual Chinese children until about age 6, and then they decreased. The younger the children, the higher their Chinese PPVT-R vocabulary (r = −.73, p < .00005). Chinese immigrant families, whose goal is bilingual proficiency, may need to provide special culture/language after-school instruction or make efforts to continue to speak Chinese with their children during daily routines.

Keywords:

• bilingualism
• Chinese children
• receptive language

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This article originally was a poster presented at the 10th National Head Start Research Conference, Washington, DC, June 21–23, 2010.