Biliterate Shared Book Intervention (BISBI) for low-income preschoolers: An analysis of program effectiveness

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: This paper analyzes outcomes of the Biliterate Shared Book Intervention (BISBI) conducted with 110 low-income Chinese and Malay preschoolers in Singapore. Design/methodology/approach: Parents and teachers were instructed on how to conduct dialogic reading with 24 unfamiliar books: 12 in English and 12 in Mother Tongue (Chinese or Malay). The larger Chinese group had four reading conditions: only school, home + school, only home and control. The smaller Malay group had two reading conditions: only home and control. Data and analysis: Preschoolers were pre- and post-tested on receptive vocabulary, depth of vocabulary, print concepts, and phonological awareness (PA) in English and Chinese or Malay. A series of linear mixed-effects models (LMMs) were constructed using all the vocabulary and print concepts measures as outcome variables. Findings/conclusions: After controlling for pre-test results, only English print concepts were impacted by BISBI for the only school and home + school intervention conditions. Reasons for BISBI’s lack of impact on language skills other than print concepts could be the duration of the intervention, the way that the parents implemented the intervention, and/or the lack of researcher-created tests specific to the books provided. Originality: There is a dearth of research on how simultaneous bilingual preschoolers from disadvantaged homes acquire languages based on a wide test battery. More importantly, print concepts are rarely measured in bilinguals as young as 3–4 years of age. Significance/implications: These results suggest that given a multilingual context and low-income background, English print concepts are more easily influenced by a dialogic reading intervention implemented in a preschool setting. Results point to the sensitivity of such interventions to specific reading conditions and the contexts within which the intervention is conducted.