Fostering Bilingual Literacy in Preschoolers Through Shared Books

PI: Associate Professor Viniti Vaish, ELL, NIE
Co-PI: Dr Sun Baoqi, CRCD, NIE
Co-PI: Associate Professor Mohd Mukhlis Abu Bakar, ALC, NIE
Co-PI: Dr Beth Ann O’Brien, CRCD, NIE
Collaborators:
Mdm Usha Rani, Punggol Primary School
Ms Tiffany Lim Seok Hoon, Early Childhood Development Agency, MOE
Dr Quentin Dixon, Independent Education Researcher
Research Associate:
Ms Nuraini Saidi, ELL, NIE
Research Assistant:
Ms Premala Benogopan, ELL, NIE

Biliterate Shared Book Intervention for Disadvantaged Preschoolers (BISBI) used shared book approach to improve vocabulary, grammar and discourse in both the languages of bilingual 3-4 yr. old children. Specifically, the intervention implemented the ‘3 Floods’ reading program which comprised book flood, word flood and talk flood. A total of 121 Chinese, Malay and Indian families, 16 English language teachers and 16 Chinese language teachers participated in BISBI. BISBI’s goal was to improve vocabulary, grammar and discourse in English and the 3 Mother Tongue (MTs) through dialogic book sharing at home and school. The sample was divided into experimental and control groups and specific reading condition groups. Our main findings were that home language use did not impact pre-test scores whereas home literacy factors impacted pre-test scores significantly. Furthermore, after controlling for pre-test, BISBI impacted the print concept scores of children in the home+school and only school reading conditions, testifying to robust pedagogy at the preschool level and the contribution of parents. The reason why other test scores did not improve could be due to weak fidelity to BISBI and the brief duration of BISBI (6 months). 

Project Implications

Findings from the study highlighted the importance of leveraging the robust pedagogy in preschools to enhance other language skills that take a longer time to emerge, e.g. phonological awareness and depth of vocabulary, in both English and MT.

Recommendations for Schools:

1. Engage parents to participate in reading programs and interventions
2. Encourage preschool teachers to focus on hard to attain language skills like phonological awareness, depth of vocabulary and narrative ability
3. Since parents might not have the time to conduct daily reading in 2 languages with their children, try to find technology and AI tools that might compensate for this without de-emphasising human interaction
4. Flood the children with narrative and expository unfamiliar books in both the languages of the bilingual child. 

Resources

Selected Articles: