The Role of Home Environment in the reading Proficiency Achievement of Primary Two English Language Learners

Abstract

Learning to read and write seems to be the focal point of educating individuals and children. According to Vygotsky‘s (1978) Sociocultural Theory, children‘s learning begins at home and what takes place at school reflects children‘s home living and literacy environmental factors. This reason sparked the need to investigate the home literacy environment and its effects on the English reading outcome of grade 2 pupils such as the relationship between parental socio-economic status and pupils‘ reading achievement. Through purposive sampling, the research selected 112 grade 2 pupils and their respective parents to produce quantitative and qualitative information for the study. The study organised the analyses into contextual factors (parental education level, occupation, electricity, and television), home reading materials, and home literacy activities (parental teaching, reading to child, and singing, rhyming, telling stories, and visiting the library). The findings revealed that most grade 2 pupils lived in poor home literacy environments due to the low level of education of their parents and parental occupation. However, the findings show that high or middle level of parental education is a positive predictor of children reading outcome, as well as electricity presence in the home. Although a marginal majority of homes had reading materials, they did not have any positive significant effect on children reading competencies but the number of books available in the home did. In terms of the home literacy activities, the study revealed that only a few parents engaged their children in literacy activities. Also, the frequency of engaging the children in reading, parental teaching, and storytelling at home proved to be significant positive predictors of early reading competencies. The study has implication for pedagogy, policy making, and further research.