Reconceptualizing the Home Literacy Environment in Multilingual Contexts
摘要
Substantial research has focused on how the home literacy environment (HLE) is related to language and literacy development of young monolingual children. An emerging body of research has also examined the relevance of HLE in multilingual contexts. However, inconsistencies in this body of research make it difficult to draw strong conclusions about how HLE specifically influences development of language and literacy skills in two or more of multilingual children’s languages. This chapter documents strengths and limitations of existing theoretical frameworks and research on HLE in multilingual contexts, describes characteristics of the HLE relevant to multilingual children that are not adequately accounted for in current research (including the outcomes that are examined in studies of the HLE with multilingual students), and proposes the need for a new theoretical framework and consistency in measurement of the multilingual HLE moving forward.