A home language and literacy environments theoretical model: evidence from systematic reviews of naturalistic variation across diverse contexts

Book section : Chapter

A challenge to current theorizing on the home language and literacy environment (HLLE) is the naturalistic variability of homes globally. Our work draws on this variability to better understand the characteristics of home environments. Studies, including meta-analytic reviews, suggest significant, but weak, associations between the HLLE and child learning attainments. Relatedly, some distant factors like country-level wealth disparity moderate the association between the HLLE and child learning, but the home-school language mismatch, a more proximal factor, does not. Although studies do not explicate the underlying mechanisms or pathways by which homes and the wider ecosystems relate to child language and literacy skills, they help provide a nascent theorizing of how HLLEs may be conceptualized across diverse contexts. In this chapter, we describe our model showing both the micro- and macro-level factors that may account for the naturalistic variability across homes. We propose that such a multiple risk and protective factors model is ideal to direct future research priorities.

Authors: Vagh, SB; Nag, S

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer
• Host title: Home Literacy Environment and Literacy Acquisition: Evidence from Different Languages and Contexts
• Pages: 51-68
• Series: Literacy Studies
• Series number: 26
• Place of publication: Cham, Switzerland
• Publication date: 2025-05-14
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-87124-5_4
• EISSN: 2214-0018
• ISSN: 2214-000X
• EISBN: 9783031871245
• ISBN: 9783031871238
• Language: English
• Subtype: Chapter