Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship: The effect of home literacy factors on English and Spanish linguistic proficiency and pre-literacy skills for Spanish-speaking children

识字发展是儿童教育中最重要的组成部分之一。口头语言技能和识字前技能都是幼儿未来阅读能力的有力预测指标。孩子的家庭经历被认为是这些技能发展的基础。这项博士后研究和培训项目的目的是确定在两个主要过渡时期，家庭识字因素与年轻低收入西班牙裔儿童的语言和识字技能发展之间的关系。这些转变包括从家里搬到学前班，然后从学前班搬到幼儿园教室。样本将根据英语和西班牙语熟练程度进行分组，这是在学前教育开始时确定的。识字前技能将在学前班开始和结束时以及在幼儿园期间对整个样本进行评估。将在三个时间点对一部分样本进行家访，以收集有关家庭文化因素的信息。分析将检验家庭文化因素塑造语言能力的假设，共同影响语言之间和跨语言的识字前技能。此外，还将调查过渡期间家庭扫盲做法的变化。

Literacy development is one of the most important components of a child's education.Both oral language skills and pre-literacy skills are strong predictors of young children's future reading ability. The child's home experiences are considered the foundation for the development of these skills. The purpose of this postdoctoral research and training project is to determine a relationship between home literacy factors and the development of language and literacy skills in young low income Hispanic children, during two major transitional periods. These transitions include moving from home into a preschool program followed by moving from preschool into a kindergarten classroom. The sample will be divided into clusters based on English and Spanish proficiency levels, determined at the beginning of pre-k. Pre-literacy skills will be assessed for the entire sample at the beginning and end of pre-k as well as once during kindergarten. Home visits to collect information on home literacy factors will occur for a subset of the sample during three time points. Analyses will be conducted to test the hypotheses that home literacy factors shape language proficiency, jointly influencing pre-literacy skills between and across languages. Additionally, changes in home literacy practices during transition will be investigated.