Bilingual Latin@ children's exposure to language and literacy practices through older siblings in immigrant families

Abstract

This qualitative study examines language and literacy practices in nine Latin@ immigrant families, focusing on young children (ages 4–6) and their older siblings (ages 7–10). Audio, video, and fieldnote data were collected during a series of in-home observations. We use a multifaceted theoretical framework integrating sociocultural notions of learning and scaffolding, communities of practice, and syncretic literacy. Analysis reveals that the language and literacy practices around which siblings engaged – including narrating real or imaginary events, sharing word knowledge, translating, and reading and writing – allowed older siblings to both act as models and enact their expertise alongside younger children. Older siblings’ expertise spanned both languages but was not monolithic; it played important roles in the school preparation of young bilingual children, though in ways that are more complex and contradictory than are emphasized in much research on sibling influence.