Latino Mothers' Responsiveness and Bilingual Language Development in Young Children from 24 Months to 36 Months
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University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School July 2017 Latino Mothers’ Responsiveness and Bilingual Language Development in Young Children From 24 Months to 36 Months Rica Ramirez University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, and the Pre-Elementary, Early Childhood, Kindergarten Teacher Education Commons Scholar Commons Citation Ramirez, Rica, "Latino Mothers’ Responsiveness and Bilingual Language Development in Young Children From 24 Months to 36 Months" (2017). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6935 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Latino Mothers’ Responsiveness and Bilingual Language Development in Young Children From 24 Months to 36 Months by Rica Ramirez A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Educational Psychology Department of Educational Psychological Studies College of Education University of South Florida Major Professor: Lisa M. Lopez, Ph.D. Tony Tan, Ed.D. Sophia Han, Ph.D. John Ferron, Ph.D. Date of Approval: June 30, 2017 Keywords: maternal responsiveness, Latino mothers, dual language learners, language. Copyright © 2017, Rica Ramirez DEDICATION I dedicate this to my family, in particular Papá, Mom, Alicia, AnaMaria, and Tía Sylvia. Thank you for your love, inspiration, encouragement, and unfailing support throughout this journey. I couldn’t have done this without you! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Importantly, I would like to acknowledge and thank my major professor and mentor, Dr. Lisa Lopez. You are more than my mentor… you are family. Thank you for taking me in and making Florida feel like home. Also, thank you for always supporting me and guiding me through my time here at USF, which was crucial to my success. I would also like to thank the mothers and their children for participating in this study! Thank you for being kind and genuinely interested in what I was studying. i TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables .................................................................................................................... iv Abstract ......................................................................................................................v Chapter One: Introduction ...................................................................................................1 Statement of Problem ...............................................................................................1 Maternal responsiveness ..............................................................................1 Significance of Maternal Responsiveness ...............................................................2 Latino Maternal Responsiveness .................................................................3 Factors that Impact Maternal Responsiveness .........................................................4 Factors that Impact Latino Maternal Responsiveness .............................................5 Significance of Maternal Responsiveness to Language...........................................6 Monolingual language development ............................................................6 Bilingual language development..................................................................6 Latinos in the United States .....................................................................................7 Latinos in Head Start/RCMA.......................................................................7 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................8 Purpose of Study ......................................................................................................8 Research Questions ..................................................................................................9 Significance of Study ...............................................................................................9 Operational Definitions of Terms ..........................................................................10 Dependent Variables ..................................................................................10 Independent Variables ...............................................................................10 Delimitation and Limitations .................................................................................11 Organization of Remaining Chapters.....................................................................11 Chapter Two: Review of Literature ...................................................................................12 Theoretical Framework ..........................................................................................12 Attachment Theory ....................................................................................12 Vygotsky: Socio-constructivism ................................................................13 Benefits of Maternal Responsiveness ....................................................................14 Prompt responses .......................................................................................14 Contingent responses .................................................................................14 Appropriate responses ................................................................................14 Latino Maternal Responsiveness ...........................................................................16 Factors that Impact Maternal Responsiveness .......................................................18 Maternal Age .............................................................................................18 Education ...................................................................................................19 Factors that Impact Latino Maternal Responsiveness ...........................................20 ii Years in the United States ..........................................................................20 Language of Education ..............................................................................21 SES .............................................................................................................21 Maternal Responsiveness and Language Development .........................................22 Monolingual Language Development........................................................23 Bilingual Language Development .............................................................24 Latino Population in the US ...................................................................................25 Latino Students in Head Start/RCMA ...................................................................26 Academic Achievement of Latinos ........................................................................27 Conducting Research with DLLs ...........................................................................28 Conclusion .............................................................................................................29 Purpose of Study ....................................................................................................29 Chapter Three: Methods ....................................................................................................31 Pilot Study ..............................................................................................................31 Participants .............................................................................................................32 Ethical Consideration .............................................................................................33 Variables ................................................................................................................33 Maternal Responsiveness ...........................................................................33 Mother Factors ...........................................................................................33 Children’s Language Development ...........................................................34 Measures ................................................................................................................34 Maternal Responsiveness Observation ......................................................34 MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory ......................34 MacArthur Inventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas .......35 Computerized Comprehension Task ..........................................................36 Demographic Parent Questionnaire ...........................................................36 Procedures ..............................................................................................................37 Qualifications .........................................................................................................38 Research Questions ................................................................................................38 Coding System .......................................................................................................38