Researchers from the Centre for Research in Child Development publish a journal article in Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal

Dr Beth O’Brien, Head of Early and Middle Childhood Research, Dr Sun Baoqi, Education Research Scientist, and Dr Sun He, Senior Education Research Scientist from the Centre for Research in Child Development (CRCD), along with Ms Nur Artika, Research Assistant from the Asian Languages and Cultures Academic Group, published a journal article titled “The Contribution of Intrinsic Motivation and Home Literacy Environment to Singaporean Bilingual Children’s Receptive Vocabulary” in Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal. The article explores the within- and cross-language relationships between intrinsic language learning motivation, home literacy environment (shared book reading, parental literacy involvement, and parent perceived child literacy interest), and receptive vocabulary in 185 bilingual preschoolers and 233 primary school children across all ages in Singapore.

The results showed a motivation gap between English and children’s second language (L2) in primary school children but not in preschoolers. The hierarchical regression results revealed that intrinsic motivation and the three facets of home literacy environment (HLE) were differentially involved in receptive vocabulary across languages and age groups.