Chinese Immigrant Families and Bilingualism Among Young Children

Abstract

Thirty-five children (17 boys and 18 girls, 4 to 8 years old) in 2-parent Chinese immigrant families had attended English-speaking facilities for 35.0 months (boys) and 32.9 months (girls), respectively. They were tested at home with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Revised (PPVT-R) and the Mandarin version of PPVT-R. No gender differences were found. Maternal English PPVT-R vocabulary (M = 112.9) correlated positively with child PPVT-R scores (r = . 35, p = . 04). The longer the children attended English-only educational facilities, the higher were their English PPVT-R scores (r = .327, p = .059), even when controlling for maternal scores. Children (n = 12) who had spent about 2 years (22 to 26 months) in English-speaking educational facilities had English PPVT-R standardized scores (M = 94.8, range = 71–110) close to the average (M = 100) score of English monolinguals. Chinese receptive language scores increased during the preschool years and were normative with monolingual Chinese children until abo...