The Nature of Spanish Versus English Language Use at Home

Home language experiences are important for children's development of language and literacy. However, the home language context is complex, especially for Spanish-speaking children in the United States. A child's use of Spanish or English likely ranges along a continuum, influenced by preferences of particular people involved, such as parents, siblings, or friends. Moreover, there are likely differences across social contexts represented by the classroom-teachers, educational programs, and economic situations-which could be important to understand. The current article tests confirmatory empirical models for Spanish versus English language use in the homes of 1,115 Spanish-speaking children and how this use relates to home learning activities and kindergarten children's language and literacy skills. The results show that although overall balance of family language use relates to home language and literacy activities as well as children's kindergarten language and literacy skills, language use by individual family members is also related to some home learning activities and children's skills.