Vocabulary skills of Spanish-English bilinguals: impact of mother-child language interactions and home language and literacy support

Quantity and quality of home language use as well as home literacy resources are positively related to vocabulary knowledge among children growing up monolingually (De Temple & Snow, 2003; Juel, 1988; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998; Stanovich, 1986). While the presence of interactive features associated with good vocabulary outcomes have been reported in Latino families (Jimenez, Filippini, & Gerber, 2006; Teale, 1986) no prospective studies relating those features to vocabulary outcomes in either Spanish or English have been carried out with Latino children. In particular, it is unclear whether interactions facilitate vocabulary across languages, or only for the language in which they occur. In this study, home factors (immigration history, home language use, home literacy resources) and the interactive language of 50 mother-child dyads sharing a picture-book were analyzed as predictors of the children's vocabulary outcomes. The children were aged 4-5 and all were attending a Head Start program at the time of the study. Frequency of reading to the child by an adult other than the parents and frequency of maternal questions during the book-sharing were significant predictors of the children's vocabulary in both Spanish and English. In contrast, language use at home and home literacy activities predicted vocabulary outcomes in a way consistent with the competition or time-on-task model, in other words, activities that supported English were negatively correlated with Spanish outcomes, and vice versa.