Native Chinese-speaking children\u27s acquisition of performance-based and reflective word knowledge in English

The foci of this study were to compare the processes of acquiring concept of word (i.e., performance-based and reflective word knowledge) in English between native English- and Chinese-speaking children and to identify the significant factors influencing the acquisition. A multiple case study design was used for this study. The six participants were enrolled in English-only kindergarten classrooms and were involved in this study for approximately six months. At the beginning and end of this study, the participants were assessed on their Chinese language proficiency and the five tasks for performance-based and reflective word knowledge; The data sources included (a) transcribed parent and teacher interviews as well as informal talks, (b) fieldnotes from 10 classroom observations, and (c) participants\u27 performance on the assessment tasks. The constant comparison method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was employed to analyze the data. Coding and recoding of collected data were ongoing along with data collection (Miles & Huberman, 1994) until data saturation was reached (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992); The data revealed that the six participants shared similar developmental patterns in their acquisition of performance-based and reflective word knowledge in English. A distinct difference was the participants\u27 difficulty with memorizing the lines of a nursery rhyme. The participants\u27 limited Chinese literacy experience seemingly had little impact on their development of word knowledge in English. Each participant\u27s home and school literacy support were two significant factors that influenced acquisition of word knowledge in English. The parents of the participants made efforts to provide them with literacy support. Some classrooms promoted participants\u27 oral language development or nurtured their love for reading, while others had only a limited number of learning activities that involved them. There were virtually no authentic writing opportunities in any classroom for the participants to explore a connection between spoken and written language and word boundaries; This study called for further research with a larger number of participants in diverse classrooms for a longer period of time. Additionally, it suggested the possibility of examining the role of TV programs in native Chinese-speaking children\u27s early English literacy development