家庭语言和读写环境与新加坡学前儿童的华语口语与书面语能力

Home Language and Literacy Environment and Singaporean Preschoolers’Chinese Oral and Written Language Ability

本文研究了新加坡华族学前儿童的家庭语言和读写环境现状,探讨其与儿童华语口语和书面语习得之间的关系。参加本文研究的251名新加坡华族学前儿童平均年龄为6岁4个月,分别完成了用于测量其华语口语能力的图片描述任务和用于测量其华语书面语能力的认字任务。这些儿童的家长完成了一份包括5个主要方面的家庭语言和读写环境因素问卷。本文通过数据分析发现,新加坡华族儿童的家庭语言环境更偏向于英语环境,家长和儿童所参与的英语读写活动相较于华语读写活动也更为频繁。尽管这些家庭中的华语使用和华语活动较少,但我们发现:更经常地参与华语活动、在家中更经常地使用华语的儿童的华语口语能力相对更好,而经常在家中使用英语并常常接触英语口语的儿童的华语口语能力相对较弱。同样,这些儿童的华语书面语能力与家庭读写环境也呈现出相似的关系。但本文发现,拥有更多阅读资源、更频繁地接触英语读写资源、更频繁地参与英语的亲子共读等活动的儿童,他们的华语读写能力也相对较好,而非较弱。这一发现可能说明,无论接触哪种语言的书面语材料,都会增进儿童对书面语的认识和理解。这也意味着家庭中建立的读写环境氛围的作用有别于语言使用因素,盖因其也可通过其他与语言无关的基础因素辅助儿童的书面语习得。

Home language and literacy environment(HLE)is a combined infl uence on children’s language acquisition in a bilingual society.Factors of HLE may have diff erent impacts on children’s learning of Chinese oral and written forms.Studies on this topic are particularly meaningful to Singaporean Chinese parents,teachers and children who were undergoing rapid home language shift from Chinese to English.Two hundred and fi fty one Singaporean Chinese preschoolers participated in the current study.They completed two tests on oral and written forms of Chinese.Their parents completed a home language and literacy environment survey asking about the families’daily language use and activities in Chinese and in English.The authors found that Singaporean Chinese preschoolers participated in more language activities in English than in Chinese.The more Chinese in the home language environment,the better children’s oral Chinese abilities are.However,a more English home literacy environment doesn’t necessarily mean children’s lower Chinese ability in written form,which may suggest the supporting role of literacy skills in another language to Chinese at home.