International Multilingual Journal of Contemporary Research

Systematic Home-based Reading Practices Strengthen Mexican-American Students' Spanish Oral Fluency in a Subtractive Bilingualism Setting
Dr. Valentin Ekiaka Nzai, Dr. Yu-Lin Feng, M.A. Julien Ekiaka-Oblazamengo

Abstract
This partial mixed methods research report explored the impact of systematic homebased Spanish reading practices on Mexican-American elementary students’ oral fluency development. Data were collected from 32 US-born primary grade English language learners and their parents. Findings indicated that (a) systematic home-based reading practices have a tremendous impact on children’s Spanish oral language development, (b) Mexican-American parents are in need of fostering a new consciousness aimed at developing heritage language literacy environments at home, and (c) children with low HL word per minutes were resistant to reading in Spanish due to their parents’ instrumental approach of learning English.

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