| 英文摘要 |
Parents play a critical role in the literacy development of their children (Baker, 2003; Kush et al., 2005; Lee & Barro, 1998; Sonnenschein et al., 1996; Weinberger, 1996). Providing early home literacy activities or home resources for learning will improve children's development of literacy skills. Parental involvement is frequently mentioned as a parental factor related to children's reading (e.g., Arnold et al., 2008; Baker et al., 1995; Begum, 2007; Considine & Zappala, 2002; Lee & Barro, 1998; Rowe, 1991). Parental involvement refers to the amount of contact parents have with their children, the quality of their interactions, and their participation in their children's school and home activities (Izzo et al., 1999). Home literacy activities include taking one's children to the library, playing games to teach children new things, reading to children, engaging in shared reading, and providing reading materials. Research has revealed that reading enrichment activities at home have significantly positive influences on students' reading achievement (Begum, 2007; Lynch et al., 2006; Purcell-Gates, 1995; Roberts et al., 2005; Rowe, 1991). Greater parental involvement has been associated with stronger preliteracy skills, and literacy experiences during the child's preschool years have been associated with subsequent reading achievement (Arnold, et al., 2008; Neuman & Dickinson, 2001). Moreover, the availability of reading materials in the home is likewise strongly related to achievement in mathematics and science as well as reading (Sénéchal et al., 1998). Students with numerous books at home exhibit higher achievement in mathematics and science. However, whether early home literacy activities or home resources for learning are more influential on children's reading performance remains understudied. In 2001, Taiwan began conducting national reading programs, which implemented reading activities in schools and even benefited students in rural areas. The government and private organizations have also begun to promote reading activities (e.g., Bookstart which is to give free books to every child under the age of 5) in families because of their own children's reading development. After more than 10 years, the effects of literacy activity promotion and the provision of learning resources for preschool children in Taiwanese families were examined. The goals of this study were to compare the influence of early home literacy activity with home resources for learning on children's reading ability and to identify which factor was more crucial for their reading ability. Data from the Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006, PIRLS 2011, and PIRLS 2016 in Taiwan were used. The studies had 4589 participants in 2006, 4293 in 2011, and 4326 in 2016, and all participants were fourth-grade students and their parents in Taiwan. Children's reading achievement, early home literacy activity, and home resources for learning were measured using the Reading Achievement Assessment, Student Questionnaire, and Learning to Read Survey from PIRLS 2006, 2011, and 2016. The PIRLS assesses four comprehension processes in reading. The passages in the PIRLS are accompanied by colorful illustrations to help engage students' interest, and several informational articles have noncontinuous text features such as text boxes or diagrams. The PIRLS includes 10 passages ranging in length from approximately 800 to 1000 English words (approximately 500 to 900 Chinese characters). The PIRLS achievement booklets are designed to assess children's ability to comprehend text through comprehension questions. Each child responded to the assessment and received reading achievement scores. The PIRLS Learning to Read Survey was adopted for this study. Students' parents were asked to report on the availability of home resources related to reading achievement. The survey investigated child-parent literacy interactions, home literacy resources, parents' reading habits and attitudes, and home-school connections. The items of early literacy experiences at home included reading books, telling stories, singing songs, playing with alphabet toys, talking about things the child has done, talking about things he or she has read, playing word games, writing letters or words, and reading signs and labels aloud. Students were scored according to their parents' frequency of engaging in these activities with them. All items were rated on a three-point Likert-type scale in which answers ranged from 1 (never or almost never) to 3 (often). The Student Questionnaire was administered to determine students' home resources for learning. Students were asked to report on the availability of home resources. Home resources for learning included the following: parental education level, number of books at home, number of children's books at home, a computer, a study desk for the student's use, an Internet connection, a room of their own, and access to new digital media. All items were answered with yes or no. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's (IEA's) International Database Analyzer (IDB Analyzer) was used to combine and analyze data from all IEA large-scale assessments. This software tool analyzes data from most major large-scale assessments, including those conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, and the PIRLS (IEA, 2016). Each student was provided a single test booklet containing only a portion of the PIRLS assessment. The results were aggregated across all booklets to provide results for the entire assessment, and plausible values were generated as estimates of student performance on the entire assessment. Students' performance averages were computed as the average of the weighted means for each of the five plausible values. The variability among these estimates, or the imputation error, for each variable was combined with the sampling error for that variable, providing an appropriate standard error that incorporates both error components. IDB Analyzer can handle complex sample designs and uses a plausible value methodology to calculate correct standard errors in analyses with large-scale surveys. Descriptive statistics, including percentages and means, statistical significance tests, and linear regression with dummy coding, were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that among educational level, early home literacy activity, and home resources for learning, parents' educational level was the strongest predictor of fourth-grade children's reading achievement. After comparing the results of the PIRLS 2006, 2011 and 2016, we found a strong positive relationship between reading achievement and early home literacy activity. Moreover, students' reading achievement was positively related to their home resources for learning. However, the results further indicated that not all early home literacy activities and home resources for learning were beneficial to students' reading. Furthermore, more activities or resources for learning did not translate to enhanced student reading achievement. For example, parents spending time teaching their children to write letters or words and children having their own cell phone were not beneficial to their reading performance. Parents reading books with their children prior to them entering school was more predictive of children's reading achievement later in primary school compared with any home resource for learning. In sum, the results seemed to indicate that early home literacy activity is more influential than home resources are for learning on children's reading performance. Both the frequency of early literacy activities and amount of home resources for learning increased over the 12-year period. This indicated that families in Taiwan have become increasingly willing to provide resources for their children to learn, and parents of preschool children are willing to spend more time reading together. The results also indicated that reading activities in families promoted by the government and private organizations have had a positive impact on the reading and writing activities and provision of learning resources for preschool children in Taiwanese families. |
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