Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-dk7s8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-30T14:50:01.486Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language development, metalinguistic awareness, and emergent literacy skills of 3-year-old children in relation to social class

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Carolyn Chaney
Carolyn Chaney*
Affiliation:
San Francisco State University
*
Department of Speech and Communication Studies, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA, 94132
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This is an investigation of the relationships among selected aspects of normal language development, emerging metalinguistic skills, concepts about print, and family literacy experiences in 3-year-old children who vary in their socioeconomic backgrounds. Forty-three normally developing children, whose family incomes ranged from under $10,000 to over $100,000, were given 4 tests of language development; 12 metalinguistic tasks measuring phonological awareness, word awareness, and structural awareness; and 2 measures of literacy knowledge. The children's family literacy experiences were described following a parent interview. The data analysis had two main purposes. The first was to examine the family literacy experiences of the children using a qualitative analysis. The second was to describe, in a quantitative way, the relationships among family literacy experiences, socioeconomic factors, language development, metalinguistic performance, and concepts about print. The interview data revealed that, while parents varied in the emphasis they placed on literacy activities, all of the children were at least somewhat involved in literacy activities at home; family report of literacy activities was associated with family income. Quantitative analyses revealed that amount of family literacy involvement and the children's race were related to oral language development, and language development was the most powerful predictor of metalinguistic awareness. When language development was controlled statistically, family literacy and socioeconomic factors had negligible effects on metalinguistic skills; however, knowledge of print concepts was related to metalinguistic performance, especially in the phonological domain, and was associated with the children's family literacy experiences, maternal education, and race.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , July 1994 , pp. 371 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, A. B., & Stokes, S. J. (1984). Social and institutional influences on the development and practice of literacy. In Goelman, H., Oberg, A., & Smith, F. (Eds.), Awakening to literacy (pp. 24–37). Exeter, NH: Heinemann Educational.Google Scholar
Applebee, A., Langer, J., & Mullis, I. (1988). Who reads best? Factors related to reading achievement in grades 3, 7, and 11. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.Google Scholar
Backman, J. (1983). The role of psycholinguistic skills in reading acquisition: A look at early readers. Reading Research Quarterly, 18, 466–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ball, E. W., & Blachman, B. A. (1991). Does phoneme segmentation in kindergarten make a difference in early word recognition and developmental spelling? Reading Research Quarterly, 26, 49–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benton, A. L., & Pearl, D. P. (1977). Dyslexia: An appraisal of current knowledge. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Blank, M. (1982). Language and school failure: Some speculations about the relationship between oral and written language. In Feagans, L. & Farran, D. C. (Eds.), The language of children reared in poverty (pp.75–94). New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Bowey, J. A. (1986). Syntactic awareness in relation to reading skill and ongoing reading comprehension monitoring. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 41, 282–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowey, J. A., Tunmer, W. E., & Pratt, C. (1984). Development of children's understanding of the metalinguistic term word. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 500–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, L., & Bryant, P. (1985). Rhyme and reason in reading and spelling. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryant, P., Maclean, M., & Bradley, L. (1990). Rhyme, language and children's reading. Applied Psycholinguistics, 11, 237–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, J. M. (1989). Concepts about print task. Unpublished work, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond.Google Scholar
Burns, J. M., & Richgels, D. J. (1989). An investigation of task requirements associated with the invented spellings of 4-year-olds with above-average intelligence. Journal of Reading Behavior, 21, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaney, C. (1989). I pledge a legiance tothe flag: Three studies in word segmentation. Applied Psycholinguistics, 10, 261–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaney, C. (1992). Language development, metalinguistic skills, and print awareness in three-year-old children. Applied Psycholinguistics, 13, 485–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clay, M. M. (1979). Stones - The concepts about print test. Exeter, NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Dickinson, D. K., & Snow, C. E. (1987). Interrelationships among prereading and oral language skills in kindergartners from two social classes. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2, 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1981). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Revised. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Evans, M., Taylor, N., & Blum, I. (1979). Children's written language awareness and its relation to reading acquisition. Journal of Reading Behavior, 11, 7–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibb, C., & Randall, P. E. (1988). Metalinguistic abilities and learning to read. Educational Research, 30, 135–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hakes, D. T. (1980). The development of metalinguistic abilities in children. Berlin: Springer Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, S. B. (1982). What no bedtime story means: Narrative skills at home and school. Language in Society, 11, 49–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, S. L., & Blachman, B. B. (1987, 11). Metalinguistic abilities and reading achievement in first through third grades. Paper presented at ASHLA, New Orleans, LA.Google Scholar
Lundberg, I., Frost, J., & Petersen, O. (1988). Effects of an extensive program for stimulating phonological awareness in preschool children. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 263–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNinch, G. (1974). Awareness of aural and visual word boundary within a sample of first graders. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 38, 1127–1134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menyuk, P. (1969). Sentences children use. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
National Assessment of Educational Progress. (1985). The reading report card: Progress toward excellence in our schools. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.Google Scholar
Smith, C., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (1982). Metalinguistic awareness and language development. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 34, 449–468.Google Scholar
St.John, N. H. John, N. H. (1970). Desegregation and minority group performance. Review of Educational Research, 40, 111–134.Google Scholar
Stein, A. (1971). Strategies for failure. Harvard Educational Review, 41, 158–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tabachnik, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (1989). Using multivariate statistics (2nd ed.). New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Teale, W. H. (1986). Home background and young children's literacy development. In Teale, W. H. & Sulzby, E. (Eds.), Emergent literacy: Writing and reading (pp. 173–205). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Tunmer, W. E., & Bowey, J. A. (1984). Metalinguistic awareness and reading acquisition. In Tunmer, W. E., Pratt, C., & Herriman, M. L. (Eds.). Metalinguistic awareness in children: Theory, research, and implications (pp. 144–168). New York: Springer- Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tunmer, W. E., Bowey, J. W. & Grieve, R. (1983). The development of young children's awareness of the word as a unit of spoken language. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 12, 567–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tunmer, W. E., Herriman, M. L., & Nesdale, A. R. (1988). Metalinguistic abilities and beginning reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 134–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tunmer, W. E., Nesdale, A. R., & Wright, A. D. (1987). Syntactic awareness and reading acquisition. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 25–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van, Kleek A., & Bryant, D. (1983, 10). A diary study of very early emerging metalinguistic skills. Paper presented to the Eighth Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA.Google Scholar
Velleman, P. F., & Hoaglin, D. C. (1981). Applications, basics and computing of exploratory data analysis. Boston, MA: Duxbury Press/Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Villaume, S. K., & Wilson, L. C. (1989). Preschool children's explorations of letters in their own names. Journal of Applied Psycholinguistics. 10(3). 283–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, R. K., & Torgesen, J. K. (1987). The nature of phonological processing and its causal role in the acquisition of reading skills. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 92–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallach, L., Wallach, M. A., Dozier, M. G., & Kaplan, N. W. (1977). Poor children learning to read do not have trouble with auditory discrimination but do have trouble with phoneme recognition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 69, 36–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren-Leubecker, A., & Carter, B. W. (1988). Reading and growth in metalinguistic awareness: Relations to socio-economic status and reading readiness skills. Child Development, 59, 728–742.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, I. L., Steiner, V. G., & EvattPond, R. L. Pond, R. L. (1979). Preschool Language Scale, Rev. Columbus, OH: Merrill.Google Scholar