5
PUBLICATIONS
34
CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Sau Yan Hui
The University of Hong Kong
4
PUBLICATIONS
24
CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Rex Ng
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
4
PUBLICATIONS
44
CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
All content following this page was uploaded by
Rex Ng
on 19 January 2019.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.
Article
The effects of home reading
activities during preschool and
Grade 4 on children’s reading
performance in Chinese and
English in Hong Kong
Shek Kam Tse
Professor, The Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong, China
Yu Zhu
Associate Professor, Overseas Education College, Xiamen University,
Xiamen, China
Sau Yan Hui
Teaching consultant, The Centre for Advancement of Chinese Language
Education and Research, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Hung Wai Ng
Research Manager, The Centre for Advancement of Chinese Language
Education and Research, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Abstract
The English and Chinese reading proficiency of 1376 Grade 4 students in 24 Hong Kong primary
schools were assessed using measures developed for the Progress in International Reading
Literacy Study. Students’ parents provided information about home reading activities (HRA)
aimed at supporting their children’s reading prior to them entering school (‘‘early home
reading activities’’, EHRA) and during Grade 4 (‘‘home reading activities’’). Results indicated
that EHRA was a stronger predictor of reading performance in both Chinese and English than
HRA. Moreover, ‘typical’ HRA such as reading books, telling stories and singing songs were found
to be predictive of reading performance in both Chinese and English. In English, in addition, playing
word games or character puzzles were also activities beneficial to reading performance. Together,
these results provide evidence for the beneficial effects of traditional early childhood activities at
home such as book reading, telling stories and singing songs for reading performance in later
primary school in children’s first as well as second language.
Corresponding author:
Yu Zhu, Overseas Education College, Xiamen University, Room B413-2, Xiang’an District, Xiamen, China.
Email: zhuyu@xmu.edu.cn
Australian Journal of Education
2017, Vol. 61(1) 5–23
!
Australian Council for Educational
Research 2017
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0004944116689093
journals.sagepub.com/home/aed
Keywords
English, Chinese, parent involvement, early childhood, reading achievement, primary school
students
Introduction
Hong Kong particularly attracted the attention of educators internationally due to the
outstanding reading performance of its primary school pupils in the 2011 Progress in
International
Reading
Literacy
Study
(PIRLS)
undertaken
by
the
International
Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). In the 2011 PIRLS
survey, Hong Kong primary students ranked first of 48 education systems or countries in
terms of reading achievement, an exceptional outcome given the very diverse multilingual
profile of Hong Kong’s citizens and school population.
Large-scale assessments such as PIRLS, PISA and TIMSS provide reliable and objective
data on children’s performance in reading, mathematics and science education across different
stages of schooling (Breakspear, 2012; Robitaille, Beaton, & Plomp, 2000; Schwippert, 2007;
Schwippert & Lenkeit, 2012; Tobin, Lietz, Nugroho, Vivekanandan, & Nyamkhuu, 2015;
Topping, 2006). Along with other governments in the Asia-Pacific region, the government
of Hong Kong has been using these international assessments to evaluate the quality of its
education system as well as to identify factors contributing to literacy development, including
the assistance provided by parents in support of their children’s reading development.
As is the case in other societies, school starters bring with them varying degrees of literacy
experience in Hong Kong. Many early-years teachers deliberately address this diversity,
aware that the preschool communicative competence of school entrants in the 21st
century varies enormously from child to child and from educational system to educational
system (McBride-Chang, 2004). In this context, it is noteworthy that few large-scale literacy
studies have involved learners required to learn a first (L1) and a second language (L2)
simultaneously, as is the case in Hong Kong. Although studies focusing on fostering
children’s L2 ability vary in their findings, almost all conclude that the earlier that
children begin to learn the L2, the better their learning of both languages (Birdsong,
2004; DeKeyser & Larson-Hall, 2005; Flege, Yeni-Komshian, & Liu, 1999).
Parents in countries all over the world have long been actively involved in promoting their
children’s spoken language and reading skills before they begin formal schooling (Emerson,
Fear, Fox, & Sanders, 2012; Landry, 2008; Central Advisory Council for Education (England),
1967; Se´ne´chal & LeFevre, 2002). Desforges and Abouchaar (2003) suggest a range of home
activities for parents to help their children learn how to read to give them a head-start in learning
how to read independently and cope with the literacy demands in the classroom.
Griva and Chouvarda (2012) emphasise the importance of parental involvement in
advancing the children’s mother tongue and second language acquisition in countries where
more than one language is commonly spoken. Their recommendations suggest that the L2 be
taught in a playful way and that parental involvement is vital for their children’s L2 learning.
This certainly applies in Hong Kong where all secondary school graduates are expected to
be proficient in both Chinese and English. Hence, it is of particular interest to examine
whether there is evidence to support the hypothesis that these early reading activities at
preschool ages at home positively relate to subsequent performance in reading.
The present study purposefully investigated the impact of parental involvement on the
bilingual reading proficiency of Grade 4 students in Hong Kong both prior to children
6
Australian Journal of Education 61(1)
starting school (‘early home reading activities’ EHRA) as well as in Grade 4 (‘home reading
activities’ HRA) while taking into account parental socio-economic status (SES) in terms of
education, occupation and income.
Parental involvement in literacy development
Parents are children’s first teachers, providing an important language environment as they
talk to children and answer their questions. Darling and Westberg (2004) as well as Griva
and Chouvarda (2012) have confirmed that parental involvement has a positive effect on
children’s reading acquisition. Consistent with Scarborough and Dobrich’s (1994)
conclusions, Sonnenschein and Munsterman (2002) found that the frequency and
incidence of storybook reading with children was the strongest correlate with young
reader’s subsequent literacy-related skills. Similarly, according to Se´ne´chal (2006), early
assistance from parents is a particularly strong predictor of vocabulary knowledge in
children in kindergartens (age 3 to 5) and nursery schools (age 2 to 3) and a highly
statistically significant predictor of children’s reading attainment at Grade 4 (age 9).
Parent SES and home support
A number of studies show that parents consider assisting their children with academic work
as very important regardless of their financial background (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Calvo
& Bialystok, 2014; Hoff-Ginsberg, 1991). In addition, parents on low incomes perceive
helping their children with reading as more important than helping them with
mathematics (Drummond & Stipek, 2004).
Zhan (2006) examined the relationship between parental assets, their expectations for
their children’s future and their active involvement in their children’s literacy learning
outside school and found that all these characteristics predicted their offspring’s literacy
attainment two years later. Butler (2014) investigated the parental factors affecting
children’s English language learning in China and found that Chinese parents’ SES had a
significant impact on their children’s English speaking abilities at Grade 4.
Early years of parental involvement in literacy development
Park (2008) investigated the effect of early home literacy activities on children’s school
performance from a cross-country perspective. An examination of PIRLS data from 25
countries revealed that early home literacy activities were significantly associated with
children’s reading performance in all countries in the analysis. Thus, the more the parents
engaged with the children in literacy activities, the greater was their influence on children’s
reading progress, regardless of parental education background.
Lawson (2012) suggested parental involvement in reading aloud as a predictor of
children’s academic achievement in later years. Children’s auditory awareness and
prosodic sensitivity, both associated with academic success, can also be cultivated by
listening to being read to aloud by parents. During their preschool years, many children
learn how to identify print that they frequently encounter in their environment: for example,
‘stop’ and ‘exit’ signs, labels on food and magazines, and the names of frequently visited
shops and restaurants. This acquisition of print-meaning connections represents an
opportunity to learn graphic systems and develop an awareness of how to differentiate
Tse et al.
7
print and non-print cues. In fact, the reading aloud of labels and signs is instrumental in
helping children develop print awareness. There is also evidence that preschool children who
regularly see print in signs and advertisements spontaneously notice a relationship between
the words they see in print and the words they speak and hear (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn,
2003; Ehri, 1987; Goodman & Altwerger, 1981; Goodman & Goodman, 1979).
Crook (1997) investigated cultural practices which affect Australian adolescents’ and
adults’ outcomes in terms of social status. Crook reported that children whose parents
read more frequently and provided a more nurturing home environment had a more
successful education path than that of their peers. Such parental practices clearly seemed
to enhance children’s linguistic and reading skills, which, in turn, helped them to excel
significantly during their senior school years.
Based on a literature review Buckingham, Wheldall, and Beamen-Wheldall’s (2013)
concluded that, in English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, the United
States and Australia, the impact of SES on children’s later reading outcomes was most
pertinent in determining their literacy proficiency before the start of formal schooling.
Other studies have found that the various elements of SES, including family income,
parents’ education level and parents’ occupation, are significant predictors of children’s
reading performance (Bowey, 1995; Davis-Kean, 2005).
Much research has examined the relationship between parental involvement and
children’s later reading achievement in western countries. In fact, the aforementioned
researchers identify a list of reading practices which have been found to enhance students’
reading literacy. Others suggest that such a list should be passed on to parents by schools
and teachers to facilitate parental involvement in home-reading tuition (Hoffman &
McCarthey, 2000; Pang, Muaka, Bernhardt, & Kamil, 2003; Pressley, 2002; Teale &
Yokata, 2000).
However, relatively less is known about whether the aforementioned relationships apply
in equal strength in countries with a population and language environment other than
English. A key purpose of the present research was to examine the relationship between
different components of parental support and reading attainment in the bilingual context of
Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong, a former British colony, most people speak Chinese as the mother tongue
and English as their second language. Reading proficiency in both languages is very
important in Hong Kong as a global centre of commerce and finance. Therefore, parents
and education authorities expect teachers to ensure that school leavers are well versed in
both Chinese and English in order to meet the demands of the 21st Century community
(Koo, Kam, & Choi, 2003; Pierson, 1991, 1998; Tung, 1997). In fact, the Hong Kong
Government and public alike take a very keen interest in students’ bilingual reading
performance (Education Bureau, 2012).
In 2001, the IEA conducted the PIRLS in 35 countries and regions, including Hong
Kong, to assess relative levels of attainment and the factors affecting reading proficiency.
Hong Kong students’ performance was found to be ‘‘average’’. They performed quite well in
terms of comprehending informational articles but were relatively weak on understanding
literary texts (Mullis, Martin, Gonzalez, & Kennedy, 2003). In the next iteration of the
assessment, PIRLS 2006, the reading attainment of Hong Kong students was ranked
second in the 46 participating countries (Mullis, Martin, Kennedy, & Foy, 2007).
The PIRLS reading literacy surveys provide quality instruments with both English and
Chinese-translated versions to examine reading performance in Chinese and English as well
8
Australian Journal of Education 61(1)
as the relationship between parental factors and children’s bilingual literacy achievement.
The study reported in this article adopted the conceptual framework and instruments used in
PIRLS.
The authors of the present article are aware that many Hong Kong parents will do
whatever they can to assist teachers. However, in the present climate where the number of
immigrants from the Chinese Mainland is rising continuously, increasing numbers of parents
will leave it to schools to advance children’s literacy standards, especially their reading
attainment (Cheng, 1995; Dimmock & Walker, 2000; Wan, 1992).
This situation has been noted in many other countries (Cummins, 1984; Dufva & Voeten,
1999; Hdstijn & Bossers, 1992; Olshtain, Shohamy, Kemp, & Chatow, 1990). In fact,
regardless of their own educational level, most Hong Kong parents are fairly confident
about helping their children with reading in Chinese. They are less confident in helping
their children to speak, read and write in English. However, knowing that English is a
second language in Hong Kong, many parents are willing to spend money on help their
children learn English by buying supplementary exercises, arranging private tutoring or
asking their children to attend reinforcement courses (HSBC, 2015).
Recognising the somewhat conflicting findings of some previous studies of bilingual
attainment and parental involvement in encouraging literacy, and Hong Kong parents’
less confident in engaging in their children’s L2 learning, the writers assessed the reading
performance of Grade 4 students in Hong Kong and investigated what HRA that had been
or were currently being carried out by parents to promote their children’s reading literacy
attainment in both Chinese and English. Correlations were expected between students’
reading attainment and the degree and type of literacy support by their parents prior to
starting school as well as at their current level of schooling (i.e., Grade 4).
In summary, this study set out to address the following questions:
1. What are the relative effects of EHRA and current HRA on the reading performance in
Chinese and English of students in Grade 4?
2. Which reading activities at home and out of school best predict Hong Kong Grade 4
students’ reading attainment in the primary school?
3. Are these relationships affected by parental socioeconomic factors (i.e. level of
education, family income)?
Method
Sample
The study adopted the sampling procedure used in PIRLS 2006, namely a two-stage
stratified cluster approach (Foy & Joncas, 2003). In the first stage, 150 primary schools
were randomly selected using ‘probability proportional to size’ sampling procedures
(Rose´n, 1997), with school type
1
(government, aided and direct subsidy scheme schools)
and student gender (boys, girls and co-educational) used as broad stratification variables.
At the second stage, one Grade 4 class was selected at random from each school. Out of the
150 schools, 24 of them were randomly selected to form the final sample.
The final sample consisted of 1,376 children in Grade 4 in 24 primary schools, 674 girls
and 702 boys, on average aged 9.69 years. The medium of instruction in these 24 schools was
Chinese (Cantonese, or Putonghua, or mixed mode) except for the English language classes.
Tse et al.
9
Reading comprehension tests in Chinese and English
All students were given reading comprehension tests based on PIRLS materials in Chinese and
in English. All students were asked to take two reading comprehension tests from a core
collection of matched and standardized passages. The PIRLS reading achievement scale
provides a common reference on which educators can compare their fourth graders’
progress in reading over time from assessment to assessment (Mullis, Martin, Kennedy,
Trong, & Sainsbury, 2009). As in the PIRLS surveys, narrative and transactional text types
were used to assess reading performance. Eight reading passages were selected, four for each
text type. Students’ comprehension was assessed by a set of questions designed specifically for
each type of text. The original texts in English were translated into Chinese for the Hong Kong
element of PIRLS, and verified by language experts in the IEA to ensure that the translated
texts matched the level of difficulty of original texts. All of the measures used in this study were
derived from modified PIRLS instruments and translated into Chinese. A back-translation
procedure was conducted to confirm the accuracy of the translation (Johansone, 2012) and
comparability of instruments (Loh & Tse, 2009; Tse, Lam, Lam, Chan, & Loh, 2006).
Scoring procedures
The attainment scores were calculated using ‘‘plausible value’’ procedures suggested by
Gonzalez and Kennedy (2003). Plausible values are estimates of how individuals would
have performed on a test if it had included all possible items in the assessment battery. In
line with PIRLS scaling procedures, the Chinese and English reading scores were
standardized to a mean of 500 points and a standard deviation of 100 points. The mean
reading comprehension score of the students on the Chinese test was 564.06 (SD ¼ 69.21)
and on the English test was 423.14 (SD ¼ 95.53).
All participating students also completed a background questionnaire gathering pertinent
demographic, home and school background data and their perception of influences that may
have impacted on their literacy capability in both Chinese and English languages.
Early home reading activities
The measure of students’ pre-school home literacy activities is a modification of the PIRLS’s
Index of Early Home Literacy Activities (Mullis et al., 2007) and has been validated in previous
studies in Hong Kong (Tse et al., 2010; Tse, Lam, Loh, Hui, & Ng, 2013). The measure is based
on parents’ responses to the frequency of the following activities they engage in with their child
prior to entry into primary school: read books, tell stories, sing songs, read on computer, play
with alphabet toys (e.g., blocks with letters of the alphabet), play word games, write words,
watch TV programme about reading, watch TV programme or video with subtitles, read aloud
signs and labels and play with compound character puzzle. Average is computed across all
items based on a 3-point scale: Never or almost never ¼ 1, Sometimes ¼ 2, and Often ¼ 3. An
average score of 2.33 to 3 indicates a high level of EHRA, an average score of 1.67 to 2.33
indicates a medium level and a score of between 1 and 1.67 indicates a low level of EHRA.
Home reading activities
To obtain information regarding current literacy experiences of 4th graders’ at home, the
researchers adopted PIRLS’s items to ask if parents engaged presently in a range of activities
10
Australian Journal of Education 61(1)
with their child (Mullis et al., 2007). The measure consisted of eight of these activities,
namely reading aloud to child, listening to child reading aloud, talking with child about
things his/her has done, talking with child about what he/she is reading on his/her own,
discussing the child’s classroom reading work with him/her, going to the library or a
bookstore with the child, playing or working on a computer with the child, and
encouraging the child to write. An average was computed across the eight items which
were measured on a 4-point scale: Never or almost never ¼ 1, Once or twice a month ¼ 2,
Once or twice a week ¼ 3, and Every day or almost every day ¼ 4. An average score of 2.99
to 4 indicated a high level of home HRA, a score of 2 to less than 2.99 a medium level and an
average score of 1 to less than 2 a low level of HRA.
Reading undertaken as part of students’ homework was not treated as a HRA in this
study as it was not related specifically to parents.
Parental time
The measure of interaction time between parents and their child was based on parents’
responses to the following two items: the time the father (or male caregiver) spent with
the child in a typical week and the time that the mother (or female caregiver) spent in a
typical week. An average was calculated based on responses to the two items which had a 4-
point response scale: Less than 7 hours ¼ 1, 7 to less than 15 hours ¼ 2, 15 to less than 21
hours ¼ 3, and More than 21 hours ¼ 4. The higher the average score, the more time parents
spent with their child.
Parents’ education level, occupation category and family income
To obtain information on their SES, parents were asked to indicate their education level,
their occupation and family income category in a separate questionnaire. For all scales used
in this study, internal consistency checks were undertaken by calculating Cronbach’s alpha.
Values ranged from 0.73 to 0.89, indicating satisfactory internal consistency of the
attainment tests scales and questionnaires scales used in the study.
Analyses
Three types of analyses were conducted for this study, namely correlation analyses, simple
linear regression analyses and multiple linear regression analyses. First, bivariate correlations
were calculated between EHRA/HRA and students’ reading performance in Chinese and
English to see whether there were significant associations between those variables. Second,
simple linear regressions were calculated to examine whether EHRA and HRA were
significant predictors of reading performance in Chinese and English. Third, multiple linear
regression analyses using the stepwise method were conducted. These analyses were aimed at
predicting reading performance in Chinese and English by subgroups of EHRA or HRA. If
certain subgroups of EHRA or HRA were found valid predictors of reading scores, then
perhaps parents as well as educational practitioners could direct more attention and
resources to these predictors to enhance the efficacy of (early) HRA.
To identify subgroups of EHRA and HRA for these multiple regression analyses,
principal component analyses (with varimax rotation and Kaiser normalization) were
conducted on the item batteries used to measure EHRA and HRA. Results of these
Tse et al.
11
analyses showed that Chinese EHRA could be grouped into three broad categories (see
Table 1), namely ‘typical reading’ (reading books, telling stories, and singing songs),
‘e-reading’ (reading on a computer, writing letters or words, watching television tutorial
programme about reading, watching television programme with subtitles, and watching
audio-visual materials with subtitles), and ‘reading games’ (playing word games, reading
aloud signs and labels, and playing character puzzle games). In the principal component
analysis of the Chinese HRA, all items were loaded on a single common factor.
From the principal component analysis of the English EHRA two factors emerged (see
Table 2). These were labelled ‘‘typical reading’’ (reading books, telling stories, singing songs,
playing word games, writing letters or words, and reading aloud signs and labels) and
‘‘e-reading’’ activities (i.e., watching TV: tutorial programme about reading, watching TV
Table 1. Chinese early home reading activities: rotated component matrix.
a
Chinese early home reading activities component
1
2
3
Reading on computer
.519
Writing letters or words
.409
Watching TV: tutorial programme about reading
.608
Watching TV with subtitles
.799
Watching AV with subtitles
.658
Reading books
.785
Telling stories
.809
Singing songs
.498
Playing word games
.758
Reading aloud signs and labels
.416
Playing Chinese compound character puzzle games
.819
a
Rotation converged in five iterations.
Table 2. English early home reading activities: rotated component matrix.
a
English early home reading activities component
1
2
Reading books
.724
Telling stories
.743
Singing songs
.654
Playing word games
.731
Writing letters or words
.582
Reading aloud signs and labels
.515
Watching TV: tutorial programme about reading
.659
Watching TV with subtitles
.860
Watching AV with subtitles
.726
a
Rotation converged in three iterations.
12
Australian Journal of Education 61(1)
with subtitles, and watching AV with subtitles). Principal component analysis of the English
HRA revealed only one single underlying factor.
Results
Below, frequencies of parents’ EHRA before their children’s school entry and HRA at
students’ Grade 4 are reported first, followed by the results of the bivariate correlations.
Results of the simple regression analyses and the multiple regression analyses are provided in
the last part of this results section.
Frequency of parents’ EHRA and HRA
It can be seen from Tables 3 and 4 that, in general, parents of Hong Kong students were
frequently involved in both Chinese and English EHRA and HRA. More specifically, for
Chinese EHRA and HRA, most parents reported ‘‘medium’’ or ‘‘high’’ levels of
involvement. Although many of the Hong Kong parents were in the ‘‘medium’’ to ‘‘high’’
frequency groups of EHRA and HRA in terms of carrying out English activities with the
children at home, a sizeable number of them indicated that they ‘‘never or almost never’’
conducted English EHRA and HRA.
Results of the bivariate correlations
In terms of the relationship between parents’ education level, occupation, family income,
parental time, and student’s Chinese and English reading attainment, Table 5 shows small
associations, although some of them reached statistical significance (i.e., p < 0.05).
The time parents reported to spend with their children each week and reading
performance was found to be correlated significantly (0.11 for Chinese and 0.18 for English).
Table 3. Frequency of Chinese/English early home reading activities (EHRA).
Items
N
Low
Medium
High
EHRA in Chinese
1346
4
738
604
EHRA in English
1331
56
924
351
Note: Early home reading activities score is an average computed across the 3-point scale items in the questionnaire.
Grouping is based on the following criteria: low ¼ 1 to 1.66, medium ¼ 1.67 to 2.33, high ¼ 2.34 to 3.
Table 4. Frequency of Chinese/English Grade 4 home reading activities (HRA).
Items
N
Low
Medium
High
HRA in Chinese
1338
404
700
234
HRA in English
1328
631
540
157
Note: Grade 4 home reading activities score is an average computed across the eight 4-point scale items in the
questionnaire. Grouping is based on the following criteria: low ¼ 1 to 1.99, medium ¼ 2 to 2.99, high ¼ 3 to 4.
Tse et al.
13
Results of simple regression analyses
As can be seen in Table 6, the effect of Chinese EHRA on performance is positive, indicating
that the more the parents had conducted Chinese EHRA with their children prior to school
entry, the better the children’s Chinese reading performance at Grade 4 (t ¼ 2.93, p ¼ 0.004,
see Table 6).
The effect of Chinese HRA in Grade 4 on children’s Chinese reading performance failed
to reach significance (t ¼ 0.6, p ¼ 0.55, see Table 7). Hence, it appears that while there is an
effect on Chinese reading performance of parents’ reading activities prior to starting school
no such effect can be ascertained for activities conducted once the students have reached
Grade 4.
Results of the regression analysis suggested that the more the parents conducted EHRA
in English with their children, the better their children’s English reading performance in
Grade 4 (t ¼ 1.99, p ¼ 0.047, see Table 8).
However, the effect of the HRA on students’ reading attainment in English did not reach
statistical significance (see Table 9). As was the case for Chinese, the activities that parents
conducted very early in their children’s lives to support and develop reading comprehension
Table 5. Correlation between students’ reading achievement and parents’ education level, occupation type,
family income and parental time.
Father’s
education
Mother’s
education
Father’s
occupation
Mother’s
occupation
Family
income
Parental
time
Chinese reading score Pearson correlation .032
.080**
.079**
.027
.022
.109**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.262
.005
.009
.397
.440
.000
English reading score
Pearson correlation
.077**
.115**
.005
.043
.190** .177**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.006
.000
.873
.169
.000
.000
**Indicates that correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Table 6. Simple regression: Chinese early home reading activities on Grade 4 Chinese reading.
Variable
B
SE (B)
t
p
Constant
518.343
15.897
Chinese EHRA
2.040
.697
.107
2.927**
0.004
Note: The regression coefficients (B), standardized coefficients () and standard errors are in Fisher Z metric.
**p < 0.01; effect size (r) ¼ 0.107.
Table 7. Simple regression: Chinese home reading activities on Grade 4 Chinese reading.
Variable
B
SE (B)
t
p
Constant
557.576
11.315
Chinese HRA
.379
.629
.022
.603
0.547
Note: The regression coefficients (B), standardized coefficients () and standard errors are in Fisher Z metric.
14
Australian Journal of Education 61(1)
in English seemed to have had a positive effect on performance whereas the current activities
in Grade 4 did not have such an effect.
Results of multiple regression analyses
Stepwise regression analyses revealed that typical reading activities (including ‘‘reading
Chinese books’’, ‘‘singing Chinese songs’’ and ‘‘telling Chinese stories’’) were found to be
an effective predictor of children’s Chinese reading attainment (t ¼ 3.55, p < 0.000, see
Table 10). Thus, the more frequently the parents in the study read Chinese books with their
children before they entered primary schools, told them Chinese stories and sung Chinese
songs, the better their Chinese reading attainment in Grade 4. The Chinese HRA currently
being carried out had a smaller and non-statistically significant effect, as indicated in Table 7.
In terms of the students’ English reading attainment, the activities categorized as typical
reading, which are fairly common EHRA, were found to be positively correlated with the
English reading performance of the children (t ¼ 2.38, p ¼ 0.018, see Table 11). The more
parents participated in these activities with their children prior to primary school, the better
their children’s English reading attainment in Grade 4. Any English HRA currently being
carried out had a much smaller and non-statistically significant effect on the English reading
attainment of the 4th Graders (see Table 9).
Table 10. Effect of ‘typical early home reading activities’ on Grade 4 reading in Chinese: Stepwise
regression.
Variable
B
SE (B)
T
p
Constant
521.976
12.177
.130
3.552***
0.000
Typical reading activities (¼Factor 1 of Chinese EHRA)
6.408
1.804
Note: The regression coefficients (B), standardized coefficients (), and standard errors are in Fisher Z metric.
***p < 0.001.
Table 8. Simple regression: English early home reading activities on Grade 4 English reading.
Variable
B
SE (B)
t
p
Constant
392.519
16.183
.074
1.986*
.047
English EHRA
1.628
.820
Note: The regression coefficients (B), standardized coefficients () and standard errors are in Fisher Z metric.
*p < 0.05.
Table 9. Simple regression: English home reading activities on Grade 4 English reading.
Variable
B
SE (B)
t
p
Constant
416.720
11.927
.020
.547
0.584
English HRA
.399
.729
Note: The regression coefficients (B), standardized coefficients () and standard errors are in Fisher Z metric.
Tse et al.
15
Discussion and conclusions
Prior research on the impact of parental involvement on the early literacy development of
pre-school children has found positive effects on the reading attainment outcomes and
benefits for primary school-age children (Baker, 2003; Burchinal et al, 2000; Law, 2008).
However, most of these studies have been conducted in monolingual rather than bilingual
contexts. The present study sought to provide insights into bilingual contexts by examining
the effects of a range of HRA on the L1 and L2 language reading attainment of Grade 4
primary students in Hong Kong.
Consistent with Australian and international findings in PIRLS and TIMSS 2011
(Thomson et al., 2012), results of the analyses reported here showed the long-term impact
of EHRA on students’ later reading attainment in the Hong Kong bilingual context.
Parental involvement in EHRA clearly enhanced their children’s later reading attainment
in both Chinese and English.
However, parental involvement once the child had entered school seemed to have a lesser
effect on reading performance. This finding is partly in line with Park’s (2008) cross-country
research into the effects of early home literacy activities and later attainment at primary
school. Park found a positive correlation between the reading performance of Grade 4
children and the extent of parental involvement in literacy activities before the entered
formal schooling but not after the children had settled into school.
In terms of bilingual reading performance, the present study found that the impact of
EHRA on Chinese language reading attainment was greater than the effect on
English language reading. Although many Hong Kong parents claimed to have
supported the bilingual literacy development of their children, in reality, they habitually
and almost exclusively tended to use a monolingual approach to communicate with their
children at home and during HRA. In other words, evidence of the impact of coaching and
tutoring at home aimed at boosting the children’s English language was by-and-large
negligible.
Regarding the impact of different EHRA, analyses showed that a combination of reading
books, singing songs and telling stories had a positive effect on Chinese reading attainment
in Grade 4. In English, in addition, playing word games, writing letters and words, reading
aloud signs and labels, and playing compound word puzzle games were also found to be
beneficial, which is consistent with many findings reported in western countries (Lawson,
2012; Malkina, 1995; Scarborough & Dobrich, 1994; Sonnenschein & Munsterman, 2002). It
is clearly apparent from the present results that reading books, telling stories and singing
songs in the mother language are important activities to promote students’ mother-tongue
language growth. Whereas young native readers of alphabetic English can correctly read
English words they have never read or encountered before and the meaning of which they do
not understand, the Chinese language is tonal and ideographic in nature, and learners have
Table 11. Effect of ‘typical early home reading activities’ on Grade 4 reading in English: stepwise regression.
Variable
B
SE (B)
t
p
Constant
391.250
14.192
.088
2.378*
0.018
Typical reading activities (¼Factor 1 of English EHRA)
3.072
1.292
Note: The regression coefficients (B), standardized coefficients, and standard errors are in Fisher Z metric.
*p < 0.05.
16
Australian Journal of Education 61(1)
to learn both the spoken and written forms of Chinese when developing literacy prowess
(Tse & Cheung, 2010).
Where parents provide EHRA in their L1, children have a chance to link spontaneously
the new learning to previous knowledge (Malkina, 1995). When parents read Chinese books
aloud to their children, they often rephrase stories to take account of their children’s
comprehension level (Li & Fleer, 2015). Parents may embellish the story with vocal
inflection and tone, point out illustrations, and invite their child to participate in the
storytelling (Stanley & Dillingham, 2013). From looking at the book being read, their
children have the opportunity to get a first impression of the written form of the Chinese
language and lexical, phonological, orthographic and syntactic elements in new words (Feng,
Miller, Shu, & Zhang, 2009). With such basic competency, they are expected to learn more
easily when they enter primary school.
In contrast, EHRA conducted by parents to support reading development in English are
quite different from those activities parents use when reading and teaching the Chinese
language. Results of the present study show that, in addition to book reading,
storytelling, and singing songs, other activities such as playing word games, writing letters
to match sounds or words, using reading aloud signs and labels and playing puzzle
compound word games, contributed to children’s English literacy development, although
a sizeable number of parents indicated that they ‘‘never or almost never’’ conducted English
EHRA and HRA (see Table 3 and Table 4). The significance of writing letters or words to
match sounds aligned with results reported by Chua, Liow, and Yeong (2016), which suggest
that writing letters and words can successfully predict English reading proficiency of
bilingual kindergarten children in Australia. Playing word games may enhance motivation
in vocabulary learning which is crucial for young learners of a second language (Moon &
Reifel, 2008). These joint parent–child activities can evoke more utterances in English and
native language, and may have positive effect on language use (Mushi, 2002). This
particularly applies where the vocabulary threshold for being a proficient reader in the L2
is much higher than that in the L1, as is the case in Hong Kong.
2
Unlike previous studies in many western countries (Blanden & Gregg, 2004; Hartas, 2011;
Melhuish et al., 2008; Myrberg & Rose´n 2009; Pancsofar & Vernon-Feagans, 2006), the
present study found no or weak correlations between Hong Kong young children’s reading
attainment in Chinese and such SES factors as parental education and family income. For
English, in contrast, these correlations were somewhat higher. This difference supports
findings from numerous studies pointing out the influence SES has on foreign or second
language acquisition (Kahn-Horwitz, Shimron, & Sparks; 2006, Olshtain et al., 1990;
Skehan, 1986). Children from more advantaged backgrounds tend to have a stronger sense
of the importance of English as a key language in society for international business and travel,
and as a gate-opener to higher education and high-ranking jobs. In contrast, parents from
lower socioeconomic backgrounds may not convey these values and expectations to their
children and English may not be perceived as important as Chinese by those parents.
Hong Kong is a cosmopolitan city and the bilingual competence of its citizens is one of the
most important contributors to a well-paid future life (Standing Committee on Language
Education and Research (SCOLAR), 2003). Parents will deliberately seek to prepare their
children for their schooling as early as possible (Epstein, 2002; Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001).
Furthermore, those who possess little English competence may also need to be shown how to
assist their children constructively. However, society needs first to find ways to reach such
parents and to make them comfortable in assisting schools to educate their offspring.
Tse et al.
17
Publicity campaigns need to be mounted and schools and teachers might be recruited to
help with this task. The present study revealed that some EHRA can have a profound impact
on children’s learning of both Chinese and English. More research needs to be carried out in
order to help parents and schools to apply the findings of studies in daily situations. Equally
important, parent–teacher collaboration might be explored in later phases of education given
the fact that ‘‘e-reading’’, an important channel of learning in modern society, was not found
to be a significant factor affecting reading proficiency in both Chinese and English. One
possible reason is that e-reading is still not the dominant approach to reading for young
children. Parents might need guidance from teachers and teachers could take advantage of
collaborating with parents to make a much greater use of innovative electronic learning aids
that can assist students to learn at home as they grow older.
In conclusion, findings of the current study emphasise the importance of parental
involvement in their children’s home-reading prior to starting school for Hong Kong
children’s reading attainment in both Chinese and English. Moreover, among the most
common Chinese and English reading activities in the home, typical ones such as reading
books, telling stories and singing songs were found to be most effective in predicting Hong
Kong young readers’ reading attainment. In terms of learning to comprehend English text,
playing word games, writing letters or words, reading aloud signs and labels, and playing
compound word puzzle games were also found to be useful activities for nurturing students
reading ability. The fact that Hong Kong students were ranked second in PIRLS 2006 and
first in PIRLS 2011 among 46 countries is strong evidence that schools and parents in Hong
Kong are effective in developing their children’s reading competence. Still, in the quest for
continuous improvement, the current study has shown the importance of EHRA for reading
performance in students’ first as well as second language.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank the children, their parents, teachers and school principals in the 66 primary schools
in Hong Kong for their participation in the project. The authors would like to thank Dr Terry Dolan
for his invaluable input into this paper.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or
publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or
publication of this article: the General Research Fund grant numbers HKU 744906 & HKU 752209 of
the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong SAR.
Notes
1. Primary schools in Hong Kong are generally divided into four main types: government, aided,
Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) and private schools. Government schools are managed by the
Education Bureau directly. Aided schools are managed by their own sponsoring bodies (such as
18
Australian Journal of Education 61(1)
religious organization, charity funds, NGOs or fellow association). However, their subvention is
mostly provided by the Hong Kong Government. DSS schools are also managed by sponsoring
bodies. They can charge school fees and receive government subsidy based on the number of eligible
students in the school. DSS schools can provide a more diversified curriculum and draw up
admission criteria that are consistent with their own traditions and educational objectives.
Private schools are self-financed and managed by their management committees. In this study,
private schools are not component of the school sample since schools could provide students
with a wide range of curriculum and teaching approaches.
2. The classic list of high-frequency words in English, as summarized by Michael West in 1953,
contains 2000 word families. Those words cover 80% of running texts in English (Nation, 2001).
But in Chinese, similar vocabulary size covers 97.97% of running texts in Chinese (Beijing Language
College, 1986).
References
Armbruster, B. B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. M. (2003). A child becomes a reader: Birth through preschool.
Proven ideas from research for parents
. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy.
Baker, L. (2003). The role of parents in motivating struggling readers. Reading & Writing Quarterly,
19
(1), 87–106.
Beijing Language College. (1986). A dictionary of word frequency in modern Chinese. Beijing: The
Beijing Language College Press.
Birdsong, D. (2004). Second language acquisition and ultimate attainment. In A. Davies & C. Elder
(Eds.), The handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 82–105). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Blanden, J., & Gregg, P. (2004). Family income and educational attainment: A review of approaches
and evidence for Britain. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 20, 245–263.
Bowey, J. A. (1995). Socioeconomic status differences in preschool phonological sensitivity and first-
grade reading achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87(3), 476–487.
Bradley, R. H., & Corwyn, R. F. (2002). Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual Review
of Psychology
, 53, 371–399. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135233.
Breakspear, S. (2012). The policy impact of PISA: An exploration of the normative effects of
international benchmarking in school system performance, OECD Education Working Papers, No
.
71
, OECD Publishing.
Buckingham, J., Wheldall, K., & Beaman-Wheldall, R. (2013). Why poor children are more likely to
become poor readers: The school years. Australian Journal of Education, 57, 190–213. doi: 10.1177/
0004944113495500.
Burchinal, M., Roberts, J., Riggins, R., Zeisel, S., Neebe, E., & Bryant, D. (2000). Relating Quality of
Center-Based Child Care to Early Cognitive and Language Development Longitudinally. Child
Development
, 71(2), 339–357. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00149.
Butler, Y. G. (2014). Parental factors and early English education as a foreign language: A case study
in
Mainland
China.
Research
Papers
in
Education
,
29
(4),
410–437.
doi:
10.1080/
02671522.2013.776625.
Calvo, A., & Bialystok, E. (2014). Independent effects of bilingualism and socioeconomic status on
language
ability
and
executive
functioning.
Cognition
,
130
(3),
278–288.
doi:
10.1016/
j.cognition.2013.11.015.
Central Advisory Council for Education (England). (1967). Children and their primary schools.
[Plowden Report]. London: HMSO.
Cheng, K. M. (1995). The neglected dimension: Cultural comparison in Educational Administration.
In K. C. Wong & K. M. Cheng (Eds.), Educational leadership and change: An international
perspective
(pp. 87–102). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Chua, S. M., Liow, S. J. R., & Yeong, S. H. M. (2016). Using spelling to screen bilingual
kindergarteners at risk for reading difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 49(3), 227–239.
Tse et al.
19
Crook, C. J. (1997). Cultural practices and socioeconomic attainment: The Australian experience.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Cummins, J. (1984). Wanted: A theoretical framework for relating language proficiency to academic
achievement among bilingual students. In C. Rivera (Ed.), Language proficiency and academic
achievement
(pp. 2–19). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Darling, S., & Westberg, L. (2004). Parent involvement in children’s acquisition of reading. The
Reading Teacher
, 57(8), 774–776.
Davis-Kean, P. E. (2005). The influence of parent education and family income on child achievement:
The indirect role of parental expectations and the home environment. Journal of Family Psychology,
19
(2), 294–304.
DeKeyser, R., & Larson-Hall, J. (2005). What does the critical period really mean? In J. F. Kroll & A.
M. B. de Groot (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 88–108). New
York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Desforges, C., & Abouchaar, A. (2003). The impact of parental involvement, parental support and family
education on pupil achievement and adjustment: A literature review
. London: Department for
Education and Skills.
Dimmock, C. A. J., & Walker, A. (2000). Future school administration: Western and Asian perspectives.
Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.
Drummond, K. V., & Stipek, D. (2004). Low-income parents’ beliefs about their role in children’s
academic learning. The Elementary School Journal, 104(3), 197–213.
Dufva, M., & Voeten, M. (1999). NL literacy and phonological memory as prerequisites for learning
English as a foreign language. Applied Psycholinguistics, 20, 329–348.
Education Bureau. (2012). International study shows Hong Kong students’ outstanding performance
in reading literacy, mathematics and science [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.info.gov.hk/
gia/general/201212/12/P201212120332.htm.
Ehri, L. C. (1987). Learning to read and spell words. Journal of Literacy Research, 19(1), 5–31.
Emerson, L., Fear, J., Fox, D. S., & Sanders, E. (2012). Parental engagement in learning and schooling:
Lessons from research. A report by the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth
(ARACY) for the Family-School and Community Partnerships Bureau. Retrieved from https://www.
aracy.org.au/publications-resources/command/download_file/id/7/filename/Parental_engagement_in_
learning_and_schooling_Lessons_from_research_BUREAU_ARACY_August_2012.pdf.
Epstein, J. L. (2002). School, family, and community partnerships: Caring for the children we share.
In J. L. Epstein, M. G. Sanders, B. S. Simon, K. C. Salinas, N. R. Jansorn & F. L. Van Voorhis
(Eds.), School, family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action (pp. 7–29). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Feng, G., Miller, K., Shu, H., & Zhang, H. (2009). Orthography and the development of reading
processes: An eye-movement study of Chinese and English. Child Development, 80(3), 720–735.
Flege, J. E., Yeni-Komshian, G. H., & Liu, S. (1999). Age constraints on second-language acquisition.
Journal of Memory and Language
, 41, 78–104.
Foy, P., & Joncas, M. (2003). PIRLS sampling design. In M. O. Martin, I. V. S. Mullis & A.
M. Kennedy (Eds.), PIRLS 2001 technical report (pp. 53–65). Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston College.
Gonzalez, E. J., & Kennedy, A. M. (2003). PIRLS 2001 user guide for the international database.
Retrieved from http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2001i/PIRLS2001_Pubs_UG.html (accessed 5
May 5 2014).
Goodman, K. S., & Goodman, Y. M. (1979). Learning to read is natural. In L. B. Resnick & P.
A. Weaver (Eds.), Theory and practice of early reading (Vol. l, pp. 137–154). Hillsdale, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Goodman, Y. M., & Altwerger, B. (1981). Print awareness in preschool children: A working paper. A
study of the development of literacy in preschool children
. Occasional papers No. 4, program in
language and literacy, University of Arizona.
20
Australian Journal of Education 61(1)
Griva, E., & Chouvarda, P. (2012). Developing plurilingual children: Parents’ beliefs and attitudes towards
English language learning and multilingual learning. World Journal of English Language, 2(3), 1–13.
Hartas, D. (2011). Families’ social backgrounds matter: Socio-economic factors, home learning and
young children’s language, literacy and social outcomes. British Educational Research Journal,
37
(6), 893–914. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411926.2010.506945.
Hdstijn, J. H., & Bossers, B. (1992). Individual differences in L2 proficiency as a function of L1
proficiency. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 4(4), 341–353.
Hoff-Ginsberg, E. (1991). Mother–child conversation in different social classes and communicative
settings. Child Development, 62(4), 782–796.
Hoffman, J. V., & McCarthey, S. J. (2000). Our principles and our practices. In J. V. Hoffman,
J. Baumann & P. Afflerbach (Eds.), Balancing principles for teaching elementary reading.
Mahwah, NJ: Routledge.
Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., Battiato, A. C., Walker, J. M., Reed, R. P., DeJong, J. M., & Jones, K. P.
(2001). Parental involvement in homework. Educational Psychologist, 36(3), 195–209.
HSBC. (2015). Hong Kong parents keen to boost their children’s opportunities for success [Press
release]. Retrieved from http://www.about.hsbc.com.hk//media/hong-kong/en/news-and-media/
16-july-2015.pdf.
Johansone, I. (2012). Operations and quality assurance. In M. O. Martin & I. V. S. Mullis (Eds.),
Methods and procedures in TIMSS and PIRLS 2011
. Chestnut Hill, MA: TIMSS & PIRLS
International Study Center, Boston College Retrieved from http://timss.bc.edu/methods/pdf/TP_
Operations_Quality_Assurance.pdf.
Kahn-Horwitz, J., Shimron, J., & Sparks, R. L. (2006). Weak and strong novice readers of English as a
foreign language: Effects of first language and socioeconomic status. Annals of Dyslexia, 56(1),
161–185.
Koo, R. D., Kam, M. C. K., & Choi, B. C. (2003). Education and schooling in Hong Kong: Under one
country, two systems. Childhood Education, 79(3), 137–144.
Landry, S. H. (2008). The role of parents in early childhood learning. In R. E. Tremblay, R. G. Barr,
M. RDeV Peters & Boivin (Eds.), Encyclopedia on early childhood development (pp. 1–6). Montreal,
Quebec: Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development Retrieved from http://www.child-
encyclopedia.com/parenting-skills/according-experts/role-parents-early-childhood-learning.
Law, Y. K. (2008). The relationship between extrinsic motivation, home literacy, classroom
instructional practices, and reading proficiency in second-grade Chinese children. Research in
Education
, 80(1), 37–51.
Lawson, K. (2012). The real power of parental reading aloud: Exploring the affective and attentional
dimensions. Australian Journal of Education, 56(3), 257–272. doi: 10.1002/0470018860.
Li, L., & Fleer, M. (2015). Family pedagogy: Parent–child interaction in shared book reading. Early
Child Development and Care
, 185(11–12), 1944–1960.
Loh, E. K. Y., & Tse, S. K. (2009). The relationship between motivation to read Chinese and English
and its impact on the Chinese and English reading performance of Chinese students. Chinese
Education and Society
, 42(3), 66–90.
Malkina, N. (1995). Storytelling in early language teaching. English Teaching Forum, 33(1), 38–44.
McBride-Chang, C. (2004). Children’s literacy development. London: Arnold.
Melhuish, E. C., Phan, M. B., Sylva, K., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I., & Taggart, B. (2008).
Effects of the home learning environment and preschool center experience upon literacy and
numeracy development in early primary school. Journal of Social Issues. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-
4560.2008.00550.x.
Moon, K., & Reifel, S. (2008). Play and literacy learning in a diverse language pre-kindergarten
classroom. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 9(1), 49–65.
Mullis, I. V. S., Martin, M. O., Gonzalez, E. J., & Kennedy, A. M. (2003). PIRLS 2001 international
report: IEA’s study of reading literacy achievement in primary schools
. Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston
College.
Tse et al.
21
Mullis, I. V. S., Martin, M. O., Kennedy, A. M., & Foy, P. (2007). IEA’s progress in international
reading literacy study in primary school in 40 countries
. Chestnut Hill, MA: TIMSS & PIRLS
International Study Center, Boston College.
Mullis, I. V. S., Martin, M. O., Kennedy, A. M., Trong, K. L., & Sainsbury, M. (2009). PIRLS 2011
assessment framework
. Chestnut Hill, MA: TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center, Boston
College.
Mushi, S. (2002). Acquisition of multiple languages among children of immigrant families: Parents’
role in the home–school language pendulum. Early Child Development and Care, 172(5), 517–530.
doi: 10.1080/03004430214546.
Myrberg, E., & Rose´n, M. (2009). Direct and indirect effects of parents’ education on reading
achievement among third graders in Sweden. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 79(4),
695–711.
Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Olshtain, E., Shohamy, E., Kemp, J., & Chatow, R. (1990). Factors predicting success in EFL among
culturally different learners. Language Learning, 40, 23–44.
Pancsofar, N., & Vernon-Feagans, L. (2006). Mother and father language input to young children:
Contributions to later language development. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 27(6),
571–587.
Pang, E. S., Muaka, A., Bernhardt, E., & Kamil, M. L. (2003). Teaching reading. Brussels:
International Academy of Education.
Park, H. (2008). Home literacy environments and children’s reading performance: A comparative
study of 25 countries. Educational Research and Evaluation, 14(6), 489–505.
Pierson, H. D. (1991). Cantonese, English, or Putonghua – Unresolved communicative issue in HK’s
future. In G. A. Postiglione (Ed.), Education and society in HK: Toward one country and two systems
(pp. 183–202). Hong Kong: HKU Press.
Pierson, H. D. (1998). Societal accommodation to English and Putonghua in Cantonese-speaking HK.
In M. C. Pennington (Ed.), Language in HK at century’s end (pp. 91–111). Hong Kong: HKU Press.
Pressley, M. (2002). Reading instruction that works: The case for balanced teaching 2nd ed. New York,
NY: Guilford Press.
Robitaille, D. F., Beaton, A. E., & Plomp, T. (2000). Concluding comments. In D. F. Robitaille, A.
E. Beaton & T. Plomp (Eds.), The Impact of TIMSS on the teaching and learning of mathematics and
science
(pp. 168–169). Vancouver: Pacific Educational Press.
Rose´n, B. (1997). On sampling with probability proportional to size. Journal of Statistical Planning and
Inference
, 62, 159–191.
Scarborough, H. S., & Dobrich, W. (1994). On the efficacy of reading to preschoolers. Developmental
Review
, 14(3), 245–302.
Schwippert, K. (Ed.). (2007). Progress in reading literacy: The impact of PIRLS 2001 in 13 countries.
Mu¨nster: Waxmann Publishing Co.
Schwippert, K. & Lenkeit, J. (Eds.). (2012). Progress in reading literacy in national and national and
international context: The impact of PIRLS 2006 in 12 countries
. Mu¨nster: Waxmann Publishing Co.
Se´ne´chal, M. (2006). Testing the home literacy model: Parent involvement in kindergarten is
differentially related to Grade 4 reading comprehension, fluency, spelling, and reading for
pleasure. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10(1), 59–87.
Se´ne´chal, M., & LeFevre, J. A. (2002). Parental involvement in the development of children’s reading
skill: A five-year longitudinal study. Child Development, 73(2), 445–460.
Skehan, P. (1986). The role of foreign language aptitude in a model of school learning. Language
Testing
, 3(2), 188–221.
Sonnenschein, S., & Munsterman, K. (2002). The influence of home-based reading interactions on 5-
year-olds’ reading motivations and early literacy development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly,
17
(3), 318–337. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2006(02)00167-9.
22
Australian Journal of Education 61(1)
Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR). (2003). Action plan to raise
language standards in Hong Kong
. Hong Kong: Standing Committee on Language Education and
Research Retrieved from http://www.language-education.com/eng/doc/Download_ActionPlan-
Final_Report%28E%29.pdf.
Stanley, N., & Dillingham, B. (2013). Family storytelling. Language Magazine. Retrieved from http://
languagemagazine.com/?page_id¼6133 (accessed 10 June 2016).
Teale, W., & Yokata, J. (2000). Beginning reading and writing: Perspectives on instruction. In D.
S. Strickland & L. M. Morrow (Eds.), Beginning reading and writing (pp. 3–21). New York, NY:
Teachers College Press.
Thomson, S., Hillman, K., Wernert, N., Schmid, M., Buckley, S., & Munene, A. (2012). Monitoring
Australian year 4 student achievement internationally: TIMSS and PIRLS 2011
. Melbourne:
Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).
Tobin, M., Lietz, P., Nugroho, D., Vivekanandan, R., & Nyamkhuu, T. (2015). Using large-scale
assessments of students’ learning to inform education policy: Insights from the Asia-Pacific region
.
Melbourne: ACER and Bangkok: UNESCO.
Topping, K. (2006). PISA/PIRLS data on reading achievement: Transfer into international policy and
practice. The Reading Teacher, 59, 588–590.
Tse, S. K., & Cheung, W. M. (2010). Chinese and the learning of Chinese. In F. Marton, S. K. Tse &
W. M. Cheung (Eds.), On the learning of Chinese (pp. 1–8). Rotterdam: The Sense Publishers.
Tse, S. K., Lam, J. W. I., Loh, E. K. Y., Hui, S. Y., & Ng, H. W. (2013). A comparison of Hong Kong
primary 4 students’ progress in Chinese and English reading attainments. Quarterly Journal of
Chinese Studies
, 1(4), 1–16.
Tse, S. K., Lam, R. Y. H., Ip, O. K. M., Lam, J. W. I., Loh, E. K. Y., & Tso, A. S. F. (2010). Family
resources and students’ reading attainment: Capitalising on home factors. L1-Educational Studies in
Language and Literature
, 10(3), 27–54.
Tse, S. K., Lam, R. Y. J., Lam, J. W. I., Chan, Y. M., & Loh, E. K. Y. (2006). Attitudes and
attainment: A comparison of Hong Kong, Singaporean and English students’ reading. Research
in Education
, 76, 74–87.
Tung, C. H. (1997). Building HK for a new era: Policy address.
Retrieved from http://www.
policyaddress.gov.hk/pa97/english/paindex.htm (accessed 15 August 2013).
Wan, P. T. (1992). Parental involvement in secondary school management: A case study in Shatin.
Unpublished Master’s thesis, University of Hong Kong.
Zhan, M. (2006). Assets, parental expectations and involvement, and children’s educational
performance. Children and Youth Services Review, 28(8), 961–975. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.childyouth.2005.10.008.
Tse et al.
23
View publication stats
View publication stats
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |