Rural Education Action Program, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94305-6055, USA.
School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Mar 6;18(5):2671. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18052671.
The home language environment is critical to early language development and subsequent skills. However, few studies have quantitatively measured the home language environment in low-income, developing settings. This study explores variations in the home language environment and child language skills among households in poor rural villages in northwestern China. Audio recordings were collected for 38 children aged 20-28 months and analyzed using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) software; language skills were measured using the MacArthur-Bates Mandarin Communicative Developmental Inventories expressive vocabulary scale. The results revealed large variability in both child language skills and home language environment measures (adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalizations) with 5- to 6-fold differences between the highest and lowest scores. Despite variation, however, the average number of adult words and conversational turns were lower than found among urban Chinese children. Correlation analyses did not identify significant correlations between demographic characteristics and the home language environment. However, the results do indicate significant correlations between the home language environment and child language skills, with conversational turns showing the strongest correlation. The results point to a need for further research on language engagement and ways to increase parent-child interactions to improve early language development among young children in rural China.
家庭语言环境对早期语言发展和后续技能至关重要。然而，很少有研究定量测量低收入发展中环境中的家庭语言环境。本研究探讨了中国西北贫困农村家庭的家庭语言环境和儿童语言技能的变化。为 20-28 个月大的 38 名儿童录制了音频，并使用语言环境分析（LENA）软件进行了分析；使用麦克阿瑟-贝茨普通话交际发展量表的表达词汇量表来测量语言技能。结果表明，儿童语言技能和家庭语言环境测量（成人词汇、对话轮次和儿童发声）存在很大差异，最高分数和最低分数之间存在 5-6 倍的差异。然而，尽管存在差异，但成人词汇和对话轮次的平均数量低于中国城市儿童的数量。相关分析并未发现人口特征与家庭语言环境之间存在显著相关性。然而，结果确实表明家庭语言环境与儿童语言技能之间存在显著相关性，其中对话轮次的相关性最强。结果表明，需要进一步研究语言参与和增加亲子互动的方法，以提高中国农村幼儿的早期语言发展。
