Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-163).

nÃo hà / This thesis presents an investigation about the family and the school as contexts of literacy. As diverse institutional domains, the family and the school produce their own literacy. At school, literacy begins with reading and writing. In the family, literacy materializes, basically, by the use of oral language. The study of this theme arose from the need to deepen an understanding about family and school as spaces of formation of social subjects. As Street (2014) defines, literacy is social; Therefore, cultural, differently constructed in different peoples and different cultures. In this context (STREET, 2014), this research is based on the discursive practices of families as constitutive practices of family literacy. A literacy complexed by the relationships established in this context, according to the level of education of its members, who very commonly value school literacy, but do not always have it and do not always use reading or writing texts in their daily lives. The general objective of this research is to investigate how families of a specific city have built family literacy and school literacy. The theoretical-methodological support is the Critical Discourse Analysis (ADC) articulated to the Social Theory of Literacy (TSL): this for analysis of the events and practices of literacy and the other for analysis of the representational meaning, based on the system of transitivity, and the meaning identification, for analysis the modality and the evaluation. This research is qualitative in nature, with an ethnographic-discursive approach. At the conclusion of the research, there are indications that families value school literacy and construct family literacy in the daily life of the family; with evidence that family literacy and school literacy coexist in a complementary relationship. / Esta tese apresenta uma investigaÃÃo sobre a famÃlia e a escola como contextos de letramento. Nesse direcionamento, como domÃnios institucionais diversos, a famÃlia e a escola produzem letramentos prÃprios. Na escola, o letramento escolar instaura-se com base na leitura e na escrita. Na famÃlia, o letramento materializa-se, basicamente, pelo uso da linguagem oral. O estudo desse tema surgiu da necessidade de aprofundar uma compreensÃo acerca da famÃlia e da escola como espaÃos de formaÃÃo de sujeitos sociais. Como define Street (2014), os letramentos sÃo sociais; portanto, culturais, diversamente construÃdos nos diferentes povos e nas diferentes culturas. à nesse enquadramento que esta investigaÃÃo se apoia para denominar as prÃticas discursivas das famÃlias como prÃticas constitutivas do letramento familiar. Um letramento pautado complexamente pelas relaÃÃes que se estabelecem nesse contexto, conforme o nÃvel de escolaridade de seus membros, que muito comumentemente valorizam o letramento escolar, mas nem sempre o possuem e nem sempre se utilizam da leitura ou da escrita de textos no seu cotidiano. O objetivo geral desta pesquisa à investigar como famÃlias de uma cidade especÃfica tÃm construÃdo o letramento familiar e o letramento escolar. O suporte teÃrico-metodolÃgico à a AnÃlise de Discurso CrÃtica (ADC) articulada à Teoria Social do Letramento (TSL): esta para anÃlise dos eventos e prÃticas de letramento e aquela para anÃlise do significado representacional, baseado no sistema de transitividade, e o significado identificacional, para anÃlise da modalidade e da avaliaÃÃo. Esta pesquisa à de natureza qualitativa, com abordagem etnogrÃfico-discursiva. Ao concluir a investigaÃÃo, hà indicaÃÃes de que as famÃlias valorizam o letramento escolar e constroem o letramento familiar no cotidiano da vida em famÃlia; com evidÃncias de que o letramento familiar e o letramento escolar coexistem em relaÃÃo de complementaridade.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur det går till när bibliotekarier inom projektet Bokstart skall göra urvalet av böcker till förskolors kapprumsbibliotek, samt vilka kriterier de utgår från i detta arbete. Studien syftar även till att undersöka hur vårdnadshavarna på bokstartsförskolorna upplever det befintliga barnboksutbudet i kapprumsbiblioteken. Den empiri som ligger till grund för studien samlades in genom intervjuer med bibliotekarier samt enkätformulär till vårdnadshavare på bokstartsförskolorna. Empirin har analyserats och diskuterats utifrån ett organisationsteoretiskt perspektiv (Flaa m.fl., 1998), samt de centrala teoretiska begrepp som studien utgår ifrån, dvs. samverkan, samarbete och samordning, samt literacy, emergent literacy, family literacy och mångfald.  Resultatet visar att samtliga bibliotekarier redogör för en och samma process när det kommer till urvalet av böcker till kapprumsbiblioteken, närmare bestämt att detta sker i ett samarbete med kapprumsansvarig personal på respektive förskola. Studiens resultat pekar dock på betydelsen av ett fungerande samarbete med personalen på förskolan, detta för att bibliotekarierna skall kunna få information om den barngrupp som de skall anpassa urvalet efter. Studien synliggjorde även vilka aspekter de enskilda bibliotekarierna tar i beaktande när de gör sina urval. Därtill visar resultatet att vårdnadshavarna vid bokstartsförskolorna i stora drag ställer sig positiva till det utbud av böcker som de erbjuds i kapprumsbiblioteken. Närmare hälften av vårdnadshavarna anser dessutom att kapprumsbiblioteket har ökat deras barns intresse för läsning och böcker. Överlag bekräftar studien tidigare forskning, bland annat vikten av att yrkesverksamma gör medvetna val av böcker så att det finns något som passar alla barn, samt betydelsen av att böckerna speglar den mångfald av individer som finns i samhället (Koss, 2015; Lynch, 2016; Price, Ostrosky & Mouzourou, 2016). Studien har i sin helhet gett en bild av hur betydelsefulla kapprumsbiblioteken kan vara om samarbetet fungerar så att budskapet om läsningens och böckernas betydelse sträcker sig ända från biblioteket till hemmet via förskolan.

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of conversational interactions between parents and their children during early literacy instructional activities. Parents engaged their children in interactions within hands-on activities designed to teach specific literacy skills as part of a kindergarten project entitled Systematic and Engaging Early Literacy (SEEL). Data for this study were extracted from audio and video recordings of parent-child interactions during three targeted literacy activities. Specialized software (LENA Pro) was used to analyze the interactions regarding adult and child use of targeted words (word count) and turn taking. To gain additional information about the exchanges, one exchange from each dyad was transcribed and analyzed using discourse analysis procedures. Findings from this study will be used to determine if children can be exposed to frequent and salient examples of targeted word patterns while engaging in playful and reciprocal interactive exchanges with their parents.

Researchers have long argued the importance of shared book reading and its potential impact on future reading growth. With the increasing popularity of e-books and the introduction of interactive iPad books, more and more parents are sharing books with their children in digital format. This may have a direct impact on the nature of the interactions that occur during young children's early book sharing experiences. This multiple-case study examined the nature of the interactions between six mother-child dyads as they read a story on an iPad compared with the interactions that happened during a traditional book reading. A coding system was developed to categorize behaviors during the reading sessions. The categories included (a) meaning talk, (b) text and print talk, (c) technology talk, and (d) the nature of the affective climate.The results of this study indicate that mother-child traditional read-alouds and digital iPad read-alouds are different experiences. During digital readings there was an increase in the number of vocabulary-related (a subcategory of meaning) interactions but a decrease in the number of interactions related to text and print. The results also showed that as the dyad shared a digital storybook, they engaged in many interactions about the technological elements of the iPad texts, which may be important to the development of digital literacies in young children. The findings also indicate that a child is more engaged with digital texts than with traditional texts, which is important because engagement is an essential component in literacy development. However, sometimes the child's increased engagement with the digital texts resulted in both members of the dyad being less sensitive to the other. Digital storybook reading is a relatively new experience for many parents and thus, they may not know how to interact with their children in ways that promote the development of traditional and digital literacies.

Previous research on family literacy in North America has generally been conducted in English, even if the program targets English for speakers of other languages. However, the differences in English proficiency among parent participants may vary enormously in ways that are not easily predictable. In addition to the differences in parent participants’ English proficiency and their concept and experience of instruction, parents from diverse cultural backgrounds also have differences in parental beliefs, parental roles in supporting educational achievement and communicating with the school. All these differences make the provision of family literacy programs which target minority families as one group a challenging endeavor, both in program design and implementation. This study investigated the potential learning outcomes when a family literacy program with language supports were provided to Chinese immigrant families. An eight-week (two hours per week) literacy program was implemented in three Chinese community centers in Ontario, Canada. The overall objectives of the study were to provide a Chinese family literacy program in the Chinese community using Chinese as the language of instruction, and to evaluate the impact of this culturally related family literacy program in terms of children’s gains in both English and Chinese. This study has shown that a family literacy intervention, adapted for use with Chinese preschoolers and their parents, can have a significant and positive impact on children’s literacy development in both English and Chinese. This study found that children’s expressive vocabulary (both in English and in Chinese) improved as a result of the intervention. Children’s knowledge of the alphabet and their ability to produce letter-sounds improved significantly more if their parents participated in the intervention. Further, it was shown that specific home literacy environments in Chinese and in English are related to children’s literacy development in both languages. In Chinese, the number of Chinese reading materials in the home had the greatest impact on children’s Chinese receptive and expressive vocabularies. In English, the age at which the child was first read to in English had the greatest impact on children’s English expressive vocabularies, their letter-sound production knowledge, and their early reading ability. The study has shown that the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate family literacy support goes a long way in helping diverse families to foster optimal literacy experiences for their young children at home.

Previous research on family literacy in North America has generally been conducted in English, even if the program targets English for speakers of other languages. However, the differences in English proficiency among parent participants may vary enormously in ways that are not easily predictable. In addition to the differences in parent participants’ English proficiency and their concept and experience of instruction, parents from diverse cultural backgrounds also have differences in parental beliefs, parental roles in supporting educational achievement and communicating with the school. All these differences make the provision of family literacy programs which target minority families as one group a challenging endeavor, both in program design and implementation. This study investigated the potential learning outcomes when a family literacy program with language supports were provided to Chinese immigrant families. An eight-week (two hours per week) literacy program was implemented in three Chinese community centers in Ontario, Canada. The overall objectives of the study were to provide a Chinese family literacy program in the Chinese community using Chinese as the language of instruction, and to evaluate the impact of this culturally related family literacy program in terms of children’s gains in both English and Chinese. This study has shown that a family literacy intervention, adapted for use with Chinese preschoolers and their parents, can have a significant and positive impact on children’s literacy development in both English and Chinese. This study found that children’s expressive vocabulary (both in English and in Chinese) improved as a result of the intervention. Children’s knowledge of the alphabet and their ability to produce letter-sounds improved significantly more if their parents participated in the intervention. Further, it was shown that specific home literacy environments in Chinese and in English are related to children’s literacy development in both languages. In Chinese, the number of Chinese reading materials in the home had the greatest impact on children’s Chinese receptive and expressive vocabularies. In English, the age at which the child was first read to in English had the greatest impact on children’s English expressive vocabularies, their letter-sound production knowledge, and their early reading ability. The study has shown that the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate family literacy support goes a long way in helping diverse families to foster optimal literacy experiences for their young children at home.

The purpose of this study was to learn about the perceptions that Oaxacan parents, from three different socio-economic status (SES) groups, have about literacy learning. This study intended to answer the following research questions: (1) Are the Oaxacan parents' perceptions of literacy learning consistent with an emergent literacy model? (2) To what extent do these perceptions differ among the three different socio-economic groups? (3) What do Oaxacan parents do to help their children learn to read and write? (4) What did the parents and teachers of the parents interviewed ask them to do to learn to read and write? A survey was adopted for this study. Forty parents were interviewed. A thirtythree- Likert-Type-item-structured interview plus two open-ended questions were used. The interviews were recorded, and then transcribed in their entirety. Results showed that most Oaxacan parents held beliefs consistent with an emergent literacy model. On the other hand, they also held notions consistent with a traditional model. There were more similarities than differences between the SES groups. There were only three items in which the three SES groups differed. Moreover, results showed that Oaxacan parents help their children become literate by providing a wide variety of activities. Reading to/with children was the most valued activity by Oaxacan parents. Finally, most parents were asked to work on literacy skills to learn to read and write. Most parents had to do "endless" letter, syllable and word drills. A limitation of this study was the sample being too small. Implications for researchers, curriculum designers, and teachers were drawn based on the results of this study. It was concluded that this survey should be applied in every classroom as away to learn more about the child's environment and build on his/her previous knowledge and that a library is urgently needed in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Recent scholarship has highlighted the importance of supporting home languages for linguistic-minority families in multilingual settings, as the family language is the means through which they can more successfully socialize their children into the beliefs, values, ideologies and practices surrounding their languages and cultures. Although there has been some research examining issues of Spanish acquisition, maintenance and loss in Canada, the language socialization ideologies and practices of Hispanic families have not yet been examined in this context. This ethnographic study investigated language socialization in immigrant families from ten Spanish-speaking countries residing in Greater Vancouver. Thirty-four families participated, three of which were selected for intensive case study in their homes and in three grassroots community groups. More specifically, the study examined the families’ desires and goals with respect to Spanish maintenance, the meanings they assigned to Spanish, and the processes through which they attempted to valorize Spanish with their children. The study found that many families formed support groups in order to transmit language and culture to their children. A cross-case analysis revealed that the families further exerted their agency by strategically turning these spaces into “safe houses” to resist assimilation and into venues for the Spanish socialization of their children, which enabled them to also transmit cultural values, such as familism. The families conceptualized Spanish maintenance as an emotional connection to the parents’ selves and as a bridge between the parents’ past and the children’s future. It was also constructed as a key that opened doors, as a bridge for learning other languages, and as a passport to a cosmopolitan worldview. Detailed discourse analyses revealed how the families utilized explicit and implicit directives, recasts, and lectures to socialize children into Spanish language ideologies. These analyses also showed how children at times resisted the parents’ socialization practices, but other times displayed their nascent understanding of their parents’ language ideologies in their own use of cross-code self-repair. The study offers unique insights into the complexity of L1 maintenance and the dynamics of language socialization in the lives of linguistic minorities and concludes with implications for policy, pedagogy and research.

There are many family literacy programmes in countries such as England, United States of America and Australia. The programmes usually include both parents and children and are presented in different forms. In South Africa there are very few family literacy programmes of any sort. This is a case study of a family literacy programme in a deeply rural area of KwaZulu-Natal. The study presents information gathered from interviews with parents and teachers on their perception of early childhood literacy and their role in its development in their children. The study contains information on the interventions of the Family Literacy Project in an attempt to assess the impact these have had on the behaviour and attitudes of the parents and teachers. Tentative conclusions are drawn and suggestions offered for future research and action. The study includes a review of related literature. This, together with the findings of the study should contribute to the discussion of how relevant family literacy programmes could be in South Africa. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.