Heterogeneity of early language experiences and word-knowledge development in Chinese as heritage language learners

This study explored the diversities of early language experiences and their relations to word-knowledge development among collegiate Chinese-as-a-heritage-language (CHL) learners. In total, 195 collegiate CHL students completed a comprehensive language background survey and a series of word-knowledge measures for categories including Chinese oral vocabulary knowledge, Chinese print vocabulary knowledge, Chinese morphological awareness, and Chinese lexical inference ability. The results showed that the participants varied considerably in their early oral and print experiences but all indices of early language experiences were interrelated. More importantly, the study clearly demonstrated the positive effects of print language experiences on CHL word-knowledge development. Cluster analysis indicated that the CHL students in this study can be classified into two clustered groups based on their prior print experiences. Furthermore, it appears that variations in print experiences lead to differences in participants’ word-level skills, including vocabulary knowledge and word meaning inference. A final set of analyses identified specific literacy-related factors at home and in CHL community programs to show the differences of print experience profiles.