English-speaking helpers boost children’s ability in language, Hong Kong researchers find
More ‘natural’ opportunities to learn English in city urged after four-year study
Local researchers have urged Hong Kong children be given more opportunities for “natural” English-learning interactions after finding those who were looked after by English-speaking domestic helpers had a better grasp of the language’s vocabulary than those who were not.
The paper by Chinese University’s department of psychology on the role these helpers play in children’s language development, recently published in the journal Language Learning, studied 194 native Cantonese-speaking children, when they were aged five to nine, and their parents, from 2005 to 2009.
Researchers administered a vocabulary test for three categories of children: those with an English-speaking helper, those with a Cantonese-speaking helper, and those with no helper.
At age five, those with an English-speaking helper got 24 per cent of the vocabulary questions correct, compared with just 15 per cent for those with a Cantonese-speaking helper and 12 per cent for those with no helpers.
Similarly, at age nine, those with an English-speaking helper got 45 per cent of the questions correct, compared with just 33 per cent for those with a Cantonese-speaking helper and 28 per cent for those with no helpers.
Study co-author Catherine McBride suggested children with English-speaking helpers benefited from having more opportunities to hear and speak the language in everyday situations.