The home language environment and early language ability in rural Southwestern China

Abstract

Using premier Language Environment Analysis technology to measure and analyze the home language environment, this observational study aims to describe the home language environment and child language ability, drawing on empirical data from 77 households with children aged 18–24 months from rural China. The results show large variation in measures of the home language environment and early language ability, similar to other rural Chinese samples. Results also demonstrate significant correlations between child age and the home language environment, maternal employment and the home language environment, father’s educational attainment and the home language environment, adult–child conversations and early language ability, and child vocalizations and early language ability.

Factors of parental investment in the home language environment in peri-urban China: A mixed methods study

“…The same study additionally found that adult-child conversation significantly predicted child language skill, even after controlling for other measures of parental stimulation [38]. This was supported by another study which also found measures of the home language environment to be significantly correlated with child language skills after controlling for other indicators of parental stimulation [39].…”

Associations between urbanization and the home language environment: Evidence from a LENA study in rural and peri‐urban China

“…These quantities are widely measured using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA™) system, a small recording device and software used to conduct unintrusive observation of the HLE (Gilkerson & Richards, 2009). Using LENA, many studies from low-, middle-, and high-income settings have found that infants who grow up in households with richer HLE (characterized by more adult speech and more adult-child interactions) learn vocabulary faster, demonstrate increased processing speed, and develop stronger language skills (Gilkerson & Richards, 2009;Weber et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2023). Thus, the HLE is a strong predictor of language development (Gilkerson et al, 2018;Ramírez-Esparza et al, 2014;.…”

“…One widely used and validated assessment for child language development is the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI;deMayo et al, 2021;Frank et al, 2021). Studies have repeatedly found measures of the HLE to be associated with higher CDI scores, including adult speech (Ma et al, 2023), adult-child conversation (Ma et al, 2023;Ramírez et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2023), and child vocalizations (Zhang et al, 2023). Understanding the HLE, therefore, can help researchers pinpoint the factors that impact children's language development and their long-term outcomes by extension.…”