Blog #12 Research Essay (Final)

Topic: How reading influences foreign and native born children?

“There is no frigate like a book”.

                                  Emily Dickinson

            The process of preparing young children to read has to start from early years. 

It takes time, patience and skill. Through reading children learn to listen to become 

aware of words, and to develop vocabulary through explicit training of an alphabetic 

language and writing. Marilyn Adams states in her book Beginning To Read “ Faced 

with an alphabetic script, children’s levels of phonemic awareness on entering school 

may be the single most powerful determinant of their success-or failure-in learning 

to read” (p.54). Beginning to read to one’s own child states as I mentioned in the 

early years in a gradual way. “ Your child will be upset by work that seems to 

him/her to be too difficult, and he feels threatened with failure. He feels help-

lessness, despair and resentment toward you for demanding more than he can give” 

Ruth Edgington states in her book  Helping Children With Reading  (p.9). 

I did my research in two different heritage families one of them American and the 

other Russian. The purpose of my research was to find out differences and 

similarities between foreign and native born children in being read to and in reading.

 My research was based on evidence obtained from transcripts of two recorded

interviews. The interviews were held on different dates and times. I found this an 

interesting, useful and challenging project. Also I was glad to use my skills that I 

learned in the class. For example I passed a test and got a certificate from the 

National Institutes of Health (NIH). Without this test I would not have been able to 

do this research. It gave me a key for the role of an interviewer and a better 

understanding of the interviewees. The methods I used for the interview were 

discourse analysis and oral analysis. I observed and wrote from my point of view 

using my own techniques. The research answered the questions: “ How does 

reading influence two different heritage children? What values, roles and decisions 

have both families made in choosing literature for their children?”

             The two families I interviewed had some similar features: The parents 

in both families were college graduates. Each child had no other siblings. Both 

children were involved in higher education. Differences included American 

born parents and child, Russian born parents and child, as well as the sex of the 

children - Russian born girl and American born boy. I did the interview at my 

house on different dates. I knew these families well and I welcome them to 

make them feel comfortable. I used the same questions in the same order. 

The only difference was that I interviewed the Russian parent in her native 

language, since it was easier for her. I translated the Russian interview into 

English. Both interviews were clear and on topic I allowed the interviewees 

to speak without interrupting when they went a little bit off topic.

             In transcript I the parents are American. I knew that they were former 

teachers but during the interview I discovered that the father has a Masters 

degree. When I asked a question, the mother talked more about her back-

ground and her family. Her parents were not educated but her father was an 

intelligent person and wanted both girls to get a college education. This means 

that she deeply values the importance of education, and her experience as a 

teacher. She also said that despite her decision to have a career as a teacher, 

she “still wanted to be a mother”. Doing her work responsibly as a teacher, she 

spent all of her free time with her son while her husband was getting his 

Master’s degree and working during the weekend. She decided what to read to

her son and where to take him to stimulate his interest in reading and writing, 

“But it was only when he was ready”. She read for him whatever he wanted. 

She took him to the library where he picked the books. Once “ I was 

embarrassed, but then I was like wait a minute”. The embarrassing moment 

had happened while the librarian read a book to twenty children. He left the 

group and went to the shelves to choose a book.

          Her efforts to expose her son to sounds and words paid off. He 

became a “good writer” in  4^th grade. His favorite subject was history. She and 

her husband continued to stimulate his interest in history by visiting museums. 

“We used to take him to museums in Washington DC”. He struggled in math, 

“But he got fine”. Despite his weakness in math, he attended Rutgers, got

 his Bachelor’s degree and became a police officer.

            In transcript II where the parents are Russian, both parents have degrees 

in higher education. This mother grew up in a family where the parents did not 

pay much attention to her education. She learned to read on her own, “Nobody 

read for me but when I got older I liked to read adult books”. As soon as she 

became a mother, her husband decided what books to read to their daughter 

based on the books that were read to him. But when their daughter was little she

taught her poems. Also she states: “When she was 2 years old. she had so many 

books - basically children’s books, but she tore them”. Then “She easily took a 

book and would throw it”. I think it had happened because the books were not 

age appropriate, because the mother tried to teach her the alphabet too early. 

Ruth Edgington states: “ Your child will be upset by work that seems to

him/her to be too difficult, and he feels threatened with failure” (p. 9) . That 

maybe why she lost her interest in learning the alphabet. She also began to read 

from right to left, and had problems in recognizing letters in both languages. 

The girl brought books from the library and returned them without reading them. 

Then she had difficulties in school. Her problems were described by her mother

in these words: “It was boring”. Her efforts to get her daughter interested in 

reading seemed to produce few positive results.

 When she read to her preschool daughter, the daughter liked to draw. 

This is good because it is the first step in writing and it came naturally. This 

habit continued until elementary school, when her mother “forbade her to draw” 

because she had not started her homework. The mother admitted that was a 

mistake to prevent her from drawing. Perhaps the mother said this was a mistake 

because she was suppressing some artistic talent that her daughter was 

developing. Sometimes parents prevent children from expressing themselves 

and try to impose their will upon their children, watch them grow hold on but 

never to tight. This mother appears to have made three errors in trying to get her 

daughter interested in books: 1) not choosing age appropriate books; 2) pointing 

to letters when she wasn’t ready; 3) forbidding to draw while reading to her.

But in spite of all these mistakes she became a good reader, a good student and 

an adult who enjoys reading today.

            These two families had different ways guide their children to become 

good readers. The girl in the Russian family resisted her mother’s attempts but 

in the end she became a reader nevertheless. The boy in the American family 

responded positively to his mother’s efforts to get him to read and write. As 

his mother said, he became a good writer. I give her the credit because she had 

teaching responsibilities as well as parental and household responsibilities. 

In the Russian family I found that the mother, who was never read to as a child, 

was raised in an oppression and unpleasant political system found a way to get 

her daughter to become interested in books. That way was finally to bring books 

home and let her daughter explore them herself. In the end despite different 

ways to these children were exposed to books and despite the differences in 

how they responded they became readers who continued this habit into adulthood.

Appendix

The questions that I asked my interviewees were next:

1.      Did you read to your child?

2.      What were the values, roles and decisions you made about what to read to your child?

3.      What language did you use at home?

4.      In what language did you prefer to read to your child? Why?

5.      How old was your child when you read to him/her?

6.      What kind of books, stories did you read to your child?

7.      When did you read to your child? (morning, during the day or evening)

8.      Did the child prefer to be read to in a group or alone?

9.      How old was the child when you stopped reading for him/her?

10.  Did you notice reading ability in the child?

11.  Did he/she recognize any letters, words in the story?

12.  Was the child able to answer questions about the story?

13.  How did parental reading help the child to develop his/ her own reading skills and writing skills?

14.  Did he/she copy words from the book? When? While being read to or after?

15.  Was the child able to retell the story?

16.  What books or stories does your child recall that were read to him/her?

17.  Did reading to your child in your native language, help him/her to become proficient in English?