Dr Sun Baoqi and Dr Beth O’Brien publish a journal article

Dr Sun Baoqi, Education Research Scientist at the Centre for Research in Child Development (CRCD) and Dr Beth Ann O’Brien, Deputy Centre Director at the CRCD co-published a journal article titled, “The interplay of home language use, oral language and early reading and writing skills in Singaporean bilingual children's English and Chinese languages” in the journal of Reading and Writing.

Drawing on data from the ongoing Gibber project (OER 13/21 OBA), this study explored the complex relationships among home language use, oral language skills, and literacy skills in English and Chinese in young bilinguals in Singapore, involving 249 Primary 1 (P1) and 263 Primary 3 (P3) students. Path analysis indicated a developmental shift in the impact of phonological awareness (PA) and morphological awareness (MA) on word reading from P1 to P3. In English, PA was a key predictor in P1, while MA became more significant in P3. For Chinese, all three oral skills—PA, MA, and receptive vocabulary—were crucial in P1, but only MA and receptive vocabulary remained significant by P3. The influence of these oral language skills on spelling was consistent across grades. The frequency of English spoken at home had varying impacts on students' oral language skills and literacy outcomes in English and Chinese.