Relations Between Indian Children's Home Literacy Environment and Their English Oral Language and Literacy Skills

Abstract

More than 90 million Indian children are becoming literate in English, yet the home literacy environment for Indian children learning English has not been explored. Preschool children (N = 50) from Bangalore, India, were assessed for vocabulary, phonological awareness, and print skills in English, their language of schooling. Parents reported on the home literacy environment via questionnaires and a children's book title checklist, adapted for an Indian sample. Parents' book-reading practices moderated the role of English in the home in predicting children's English receptive vocabulary, such that high levels of book reading compensated for low ambient levels of English in the home. English in the home also predicted children's phonological awareness, whereas parental book reading and teaching of print both predicted children's print skills. Implications for the role of book reading in families learning English as a second language are discussed.