Article published in:
Anxiety, Insecurity, and Border Crossing: Language Contact in a Globalizing World
Edited by Mie Hiramoto and Joseph Sung-Yul Park
[Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 24:2] 2014
► pp. 274–300

An ethnographic multiple-case study of mother–child interaction strategies in Singapore-based Chinese families

| Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Previous research has shown that differences in the speech that children are exposed to can lead to differences in their language, literacy and cognitive development, and may even affect subsequent success at school. Informed by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of language learning in early childhood and Sigel’s Psychological Distancing Model, this ethnographic multiple-case study analyzes maternal interaction strategies in four Chinese families in Singapore — two local and two immigrant families — to explore factors that influence choice of interaction strategies. Cross-case comparisons are made in terms of the mothers’ professional and cultural backgrounds, and within-case comparisons are made along the lines of contextual factors. The comparisons reveal both important similarities and differences in the mothers’ use of interaction strategies which was shaped by an array of social, cultural, and contextual factors.

Keywords: distancing strategies, immigrant families, family literacy practices, maternal interaction strategies, Singapore
Published online: 22 December 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.24.2.07ren
References
Au, K.H
(1993) Literacy instruction in multicultural settings. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.Google Scholar
Barker, L., Mackler, K, Sonnenschein, S., & Serpell, R
(2001) Parents’ interactions with their first-grade children during storybook reading and relations with subsequent home reading activity and reading achievement. Journal of School Psychology, 301, 415–438. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barton, D., & Hamilton, M
(1998) Local literacies: Reading and writing in one community. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bogdan, R.C., & Biklen, S.K
(2003) Quantitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
Bourdais, C
(2002) Distancing theory: Looking at early ontogeny through Sigel’s perspective. Culture & Psychology, 81, 215–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P
(1977) Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1990) The logic of practice. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Bus, A.G., & van IJzendoorn, M.H
(1988) Mother–child interactions, attachment, and emergent literacy: A cross-sectional study. Child Development, 591, 1262–1272. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cheah, Y.M
(1998) The examination culture and its impact on literacy innovations: The case of Singapore. Language and Education, 121, 192–209. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cheng, K., & Wong, K
(1996) School effectiveness in East Asia. Journal of Educational Administration, 34(5), 32–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Curenton, S., Craig, M., & Flanigan, N
(2008) Use of decontextualized talk across story contexts: How oral storytelling and emergent reading can scaffold children’s development. Early Education and Development, 191, 161–187. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Jong, P.F., & Leseman, P.P
(2001) Lasting effects of home literacy on reading achievement in school. Journal of School Psychology, 391, 389–414. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DeLoache, J.S., & DeMendoza, O.A.P
(1987) Joint picturebook reading of mothers and one-year-old children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 51, 111–123. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, D.K., & Neuman, S.B
(2006) Introduction. In D. Dickinson & S.B. Neuman (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (Vol.21, pp.1–10). New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Dickinson, D.K., & Tabors, P.O
(1991) Early literacy: Linkages between home, school and literacy achievement at age five. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 61, 30–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ferdman, B.M
(1991) Literacy and cultural identity. In M. Minami & B.P. Kennedy (Eds.), Language issues in literacy and bilingual/multicultural education (pp.347–371). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review.Google Scholar
Gardner, H
(1983) Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Hart, B., & Risley, T
(1992) American parenting of language-learning children: Persisting differences in family–child interactions observed in natural home environments. Developmental Psychology, 281, 1096–1105. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hart, B., & Risley, T.R
(1995) Meaningful differences in the everyday experiences of young American children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.Google Scholar
Heath, S.B
(1983) Ways with words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hoff, E
(2006) Environmental support for language acquisition. In D.K. Dickinson & S.B. Neuman (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (Vol.21, pp.163–172). New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Hu, G
(2002) Potential cultural resistance to pedagogical imports: The case of communicative language teaching in China. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 151, 93–105. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huang, J., & Prochner, L
(2004) Chinese parenting styles and children’s self-regulated learning. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 181, 227–238. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koh, G.H
(2010) Preparing for school: An ethnographic study of young Chinese children’s literacy learning. Unpublished PhD thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Laosa, L.M
(1978) Maternal teaching strategies in Chicano families of varied educational and socioeconomic levels. Child Development, 491, 1129–1135. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Larson, J., & Marsh, J
(2005) Making literacy real: Theories and practices for learning and teaching. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Leseman, P.P.M., & de Jong, P.F
(1998) Home literacy: Opportunity, instruction, cooperation and social-emotional quality predicting early reading achievement. Reading Research Quarterly, 331, 294–318. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leseman, P.P.M., & van Tuijl, C
(2006) Cultural diversity in early literacy: Findings in Dutch studies. In D.K. Dickinson & S.B. Neuman (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (Vol.21, pp.211–228). New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Li, G
(2002) “East is east, west is west?” Home literacy, culture and schooling. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
(2004) Perspectives on struggling English language learners: Case studies of two Chinese-Canadian children. Journal of Literacy Research, 361, 31–72. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2006) What do parents think? Middle-class Chinese immigrant parents’ perspectives on literacy learning, homework, and school-home communication. The School Community Journal, 161, 27–46.Google Scholar
McGillicuddy-DeLisi, A.V., & Sigel, I.E
(1991) Family environments and children’s representational thinking. In S.B. Silvern & B.A. Hutson (Eds.), Advances in reading/language research (Vol.51, pp.63–90). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Miles, M.B., & Huberman, A.M
(1994) Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SagGoogle Scholar
Ninio, A
(1980) Picturebook reading in mother–infant dyads belonging to two subgroups in Israel. Child Development, 511, 587–590. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ninio, A., & Bruner, J
(1978) The achievement and antecedents of labeling. Journal of Child Language, 51, 1–15. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pellegrini, A.D., Brody, G., & Sigel, I
(1985) Parents’ book-reading habits with their children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 771, 332–340. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pellegrini, A.D., Perlmutter, J.C., Galda, L., & Brody, G.H
(1990) Joint reading between Black Head Start children and their mothers. Child Development, 611, 443–453. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Purcell-Gates, V
(1996) Stories, coupons, and the “TV guide”: Relationships between home literacy experiences and emergent literacy knowledge. Reading Research Quarterly, 311, 406–428. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ren, L., & Hu, G
(2013) Prolepsis, reciprocity and syncretism in early language and biliteracy practices: A case study of family language policy in Singapore. Language Policy, 121, 63–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rogoff, B
(2003) The cultural nature of human development. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rogoff, B., Goodman-Turkanis, C., & Bartlett, L
(2001) Learning together: Children and adults in a school community. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
See, E.L
(2005) My kiasu teenage life in Singapore. Singapore: Monsoon Books.Google Scholar
Sigel, I.E
(1982) The relationship between parental distancing strategies and the child’s cognitive behavior. In L.M. Laosa & I.E. Sigel (Eds.), Families as learning environments for children (pp.47–86). New York: Plenum Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2002) The Psychological Distancing Model: A study of the socialization of cognition. Culture & Psychology, 81, 189–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sigel, I.E., & McGillicuddy-DeLisi, A.V
(1984) Parents as teachers of their children: A distancing behavior model. In A.D. Pellegrini & T.D. Yawkey (Eds.), The development of oral and written language in social contexts (pp.71–92). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Sirin, S.R
(2005) Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: A meta-analytic review of research. Review of Educational Research, 751, 417–453. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Snow, C.E., Burns, S., & Griffin, P
(1998) Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Street, B.V
(1995) Social literacies: Critical approaches to literacy in development, ethnography and education. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Svensson, L., & Doumas, K
(2013) Contextual and analytic qualities of research methods exemplified in research on teaching. Qualitative Inquiry, 191, 441–450. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Torr, J
(2004) Talking about picture books: The influence of maternal education on four-year-old children’s talk with mothers and pre-school teachers. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 41, 181–210. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vygotsky, L.S
(1962) Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1978) Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wan, G
(2000) A Chinese girl’s storybook experiences at home. Language Arts, 771, 398–405.Google Scholar
Wang, X., Bernas, R., & Eberhard, P
(2005) Maternal teaching strategies in four cultural communities: Implications for early childhood teachers. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 31, 269–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weigel, D.J., Martin, S.S., & Bennett, K.K
(2005) Ecological influences of the home and the child-care center on preschool-age children’s literacy development. Reading Research Quarterly, 401, 204–233. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yin, R.K
(2009) Case study research: Design and methods (4th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Zhang, C., Ollila, L.O., & Harvey, C.B
(1998) Chinese parents’ perceptions of their children’s literacy and schooling in Canada. Canadian Journal of Education, 231, 182–190. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Palmer, Eurica, Lochner Marais & Michelle Engelbrecht
2022. Parental decision-making in infant and child male circumcision: a case study in two townships in Gauteng, South Africa. African Journal of AIDS Research 21:1 ► pp. 32 ff. Crossref logo
Vélez-Agosto, Nicole M., José G. Soto-Crespo, Mónica Vizcarrondo-Oppenheimer, Stephanie Vega-Molina & Cynthia García Coll
2017. Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory Revision: Moving Culture From the Macro Into the Micro. Perspectives on Psychological Science 12:5 ► pp. 900 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 january 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.