Factors predicting the language development of second-generation immigrant children in Australia

Abstract

This study investigated the language development of second-generation immigrant children from non-English-speaking backgrounds (that is, Australian-born children whose main caregiver was born overseas and spoke a language other than English at home). It examined whether these children had poorer English language abilities than children of native-born parents at the time they entered school and in mid primary school. Additionally, the study assessed whether in- and out-of-home activities likely to enrich the language-learning environment, material resources relevant to language development (e.g., children’s books) and psychological resources (parent’s academic expectations for the child) and the home language environment explain individual differences in language development at 8-9 years (and also whether children’s receptive oral language at 4-5 years mediates these relationships). Data were drawn from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, which uses a nationally representative sample of Australian children. Information for second-generation immigrant children from non-English-speaking backgrounds (n = 144; M age at Wave 1 = 4.7 years) and their foreign-born main caregiver were drawn from Waves 1 and 2 of data collection. The children’s data were compared with those from Australian born children whose main caregiver was born in Australia and spoke English at home (n = 3609; M age at Wave 1 = 4.7 years). Measures of in- and out-of-home language enrichment activities, in-home resources and home language environment were obtained via parental-report. The language outcome at 4 years was children’s receptive oral vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III Adapted); the language outcomes at 8 years of age were receptive oral vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III Adapted), reading comprehension (National Assessment Program--Language and Numeracy (NAPLAN): Reading), and persuasive writing (NAPLAN: Writing). Results showed that second-generation immigrant children from non-English-speaking backgrounds had no meaningful disadvantage on any language outcome at 8-9 years of age. Moreover, they also showed no meaningful disadvantage in receptive oral language at 4-5 years of age. In addition, individual differences in oral receptive language at 4 years were not related to the linguistic similarity between the children’s home language and English. In contrast, in- and out-of-home language enrichment activities and the number of children’s books in the home were positively related to receptive oral language at 4 years, which mediated the relationship between these predictors and all of the language outcomes at 8-9 years. This suggests that early receptive oral language skills are a key predictor of later receptive oral, written and expressive written language abilities. The positive language outcomes for second-generation immigrant children from non-English-speaking backgrounds in Australia is in marked contrast to the poorer outcomes for these children in many other Western countries.