The Impact of Home Language and Literacy Environment on Children's Learning Outcomes

Authors

  • Budianto Hamuddin Universitas Lancang Kuning, Pekanbaru, Indonesia
  • Meutya Rizki Ramadhani Universitas Lancang Kuning, Pekanbaru, Indonesia
  • Fatma Setya Ningrum Universitas Lancang Kuning, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24903/sj.v10i1.2001

Keywords:

Home Language and Literacy Environment (HLLE), Children's Learning Outcomes, Cognitive Development, Language Development, Literacy Development, Parental Involvement

Abstract

Background
The Home Language and Literacy Environment (HLLE) is critical for children's language development, cognitive growth, and academic success. In bilingual and multilingual households, HLLE influences linguistic proficiency, executive function, and social integration. While numerous studies emphasize HLLE’s potential benefits, significant gaps remain concerning the influence of socioeconomic status, parental involvement, and access to technological tools in diverse home contexts.
Methodology
This Systematic Literature Review (SLR) synthesizes findings from 23 empirical studies (both qualitative and quantitative) published between 2019 and 2024, selected from 2,098 records across Crossref, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science. A thematic and quantitative synthesis categorizes results based on HLLE components, parental engagement, socioeconomic factors, and technology use.
Findings
HLLE supports cognitive flexibility, literacy, and executive function. Parental involvement, especially in shared reading and storytelling, strongly links to higher vocabulary scores and literacy rates. Children in HLLE-rich environments show significant gains in language and reading, with vocabulary improvements of 20–30% and more conversational turns per hour, as measured by tools like LENA.
Metrics such as adult word count and child vocalizations underscore HLLE’s impact. However, limited access to books, interactions, and technology due to socioeconomic gaps continues to widen literacy disparities. While tools like LENA offer valuable insights, challenges in accessibility and equity remain.
Conclusion
HLLE is essential for bilingual and multilingual literacy development. Addressing parental literacy support, socioeconomic inequalities, and digital literacy initiatives is crucial for equitable learning outcomes. Future research should assess HLLE’s long-term impact on academic success.
Originality
This study offers a comprehensive synthesis of HLLE research, integrating linguistic, sociocultural, and quantitative perspectives to inform educators, policymakers, and researchers.

Author Biographies

Budianto Hamuddin, Universitas Lancang Kuning, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

Dr. Budianto Hamuddin, MESL, is a senior lecturer in the English Department at the Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, Universitas Lancang Kuning (UNILAK) in Pekanbaru, Indonesia. He also serves as the Deputy Director of Research and Innovations at the Institute of Research and Community Service (LPPM) at UNILAK. His research interests include Applied Linguistics, English Language Teaching, and Internet Linguistics in Education. Dr. Hamuddin has contributed to various publications and has been cited in numerous academic works.  He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the "Elsya: Journal of English Language Studies."

Meutya Rizki Ramadhani, Universitas Lancang Kuning, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

Meutya Rizki Ramadhani is a researcher and academic affiliated with Universitas Lancang Kuning (UNILAK), Pekanbaru, Indonesia. As a research assistant at the Institute for Research and Community Service (LPPM) UNILAK, she actively contributes to studies in the field of education, particularly in English language learning. Her research interests encompass gamification in education, applied linguistics, and innovative teaching methodologies.

In addition to her research endeavors, Meutya plays a significant role in managerial leadership as the Assistant editor of Elsya journal. She has co-authored publications exploring the impact of gamification on English language learning, particularly in Asian educational contexts.

With a strong passion for academic excellence and innovative learning strategies, Meutya is dedicated to advancing research in English language education and fostering student engagement through modern pedagogical approaches.

Fatma Setya Ningrum, Universitas Lancang Kuning, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

Fatma Setya Ningrum is a researcher and academic affiliated with Universitas Lancang Kuning (UNILAK), Pekanbaru, Indonesia. As a research assistant at the Institute for Research and Community Service (LPPM) UNILAK, she actively contributes to studies in the field of education, particularly in English language learning. Her research interests encompass gamification in education, applied linguistics, and innovative teaching methodologies.
With a strong passion for academic excellence and innovative learning strategies, As the Assistant editor of REiLA journal, Fatma is dedicated to advancing research in English language education and fostering student engagement through modern pedagogical approaches.

References

Bialystok, E. (2009). Cognitive effects of bilingualism: How language experience shapes cognition. Cognitive Development, 24(4), 338–351. https://doi.org/10.1093/cogdev/bzh018

Brito, N. H., Troller-Renfree, S. V., Leon-Santos, A., Isler, J. R., Fifer, W. P., & Noble, K. G. (2020). Associations among the home language environment and neural activity during infancy. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 42, 100805. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100805

Chiedu, F. (2024). Quantifying executive functions: Bilingual education's cognitive impact in special education. International Journal of Religion, 5(6), 22–38. https://doi.org/10.61707/tmj85448

Dang, T. (2024). The impact of early childhood bilingualism on cognitive development: Comparative studies. Journal of Knowledge Learning and Science Technology, 3(2), 177–184. https://doi.org/10.60087/jklst.vol3.n2.p184

Ebert, S., Lehrl, S., & Weinert, S. (2020). Differential effects of the home language and literacy environment on child language and theory of mind and their relation to socioeconomic background. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 567. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00567

Filippi, R. (2024). The impact of multilingualism and socio-economic status on academic performance: Evidence from the SCAMP and the National Pupil Databases. PsyArXiv Preprints. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/hdj5g

Filippi, R., Ceccolini, A., Booth, E., Shen, C., Thomas, M., Toledano, M., & Dumontheil, I. (2022). Modulatory effects of SES and multilinguistic experience on cognitive development: A longitudinal data analysis of multilingual and monolingual adolescents from the SCAMP cohort. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25(9), 3489–3506. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2022.2064191

Florit, E., Barachetti, C., Majorano, M., & Lavelli, M. (2021). Home language activities and expressive vocabulary of toddlers from low-SES monolingual families and bilingual immigrant families. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(4), 1925. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041925

Goodrich, J. M., Lonigan, C. J., Phillips, B. M., Farver, J. M., & Wilson, K. D. (2021). Influences of the home language and literacy environment on Spanish and English vocabulary growth among dual language learners. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 56, 194–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2021.07.003

Haft, S. L., Gys, C. L., Bunge, S., Uchikoshi, Y., & Zhou, Q. (2022). Home language environment and executive functions in Mexican American and Chinese American preschoolers in Head Start. Early Education and Development, 33(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2021.1993223

Hammrich, C. (2023). Does the association between preschool media use and language difficulties at school entry vary by first language of the child and parental education? Children, 10(12), 1848. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10121848

Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Paul H. Brookes Publishing.

Hu, K. (2024). Impact of multilingualism on brain structure and function: A review. Theoretical and Natural Science, 62(1), 72–77. https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-8818/62/20241477

Inoue, T., Manolitsis, G., de Jong, P. F., Landerl, K., Parrila, R., & Georgiou, G. K. (2020). Home literacy environment and early literacy development across languages varying in orthographic consistency. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 554. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00554

Koch, M. (2024). An emotional advantage of multilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 27(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728923000937

Lau, C., & Richards, B. (2021). Home literacy environment and children’s English language and literacy skills in Hong Kong. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 663434. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.663434

Ma, Y., Jonsson, L., Yao, Z., Zhang, X., Friesen, D., Medina, A., ... & Pappas, L. (2023). The home language environment in rural China: Variations across family characteristics. BMC Public Health, 23, 15012. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15012-3

Mendive, S., Aldoney, D., Lara, M. M., Pezoa, J. P., & Hoff, E. (2022). Home language and literacy environments at the age of four: Determinants and their relation to reading. Infancia y Aprendizaje, 45(1), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/02103702.2022.2046225

Mendive, S., Mascareño Lara, M., Aldoney, D., Pérez, J. C., & Pezoa, J. P. (2020). Home language and literacy environments and early literacy trajectories of low-socioeconomic status Chilean children. Child Development, 91(5), 1419–1436. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13350

Mennen, I., Kelly, N., Mayr, R., & Morris, J. (2020). The effects of home language and bilingualism on the realization of lexical stress in Welsh and Welsh English. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 554. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00554

Panda, S. (2017). Systematic literature review: Principles, methods, and guidelines. Journal of Research Methodology, 25(1), 45–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-017-0530-5

Peleman, B., Van Der Wildt, A., & Vandenbroeck, M. (2022). Home language use with children, dialogue with multilingual parents, and professional development in ECEC. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 59, 147–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2021.07.003

Peyer, E., Barras, M., & Lüthi, G. (2022). Including home languages in the classroom: A videographic study on challenges and possibilities of multilingual pedagogy. International Journal of Multilingualism, 19(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2022.2046225

Planckaert, N. (2023). Is there a cognitive advantage in inhibition and switching for bilingual children? A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, Article 1191816. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1191816

San San Kyaw, K., Tin, S. T., Underwood, L., & Grant, C. (2020). Effects of home language environment and household crowding on early expressive language development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 53, 64–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2020.10.001

Scarpino, S. E., Hammer, C. S., Goldstein, B., Rodriguez, B. L., & Lopez, L. M. (2019). Effects of home language, oral language skills, and cross-linguistic phonological abilities on whole-word proximity in Spanish-English–speaking children. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 28(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJSLP-18-0190

Shaaban, T. (2024). Promoting multilingualism and executive functions: A cross-cultural study on language learning support. XLinguae, 17(2), 200–216. https://doi.org/10.18355/xl.2024.17.02.14

Sheng, L., Wang, D., Walsh, C., Heisler, L., Li, X., & Su, P. L. (2021). The bilingual home language boost through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 667836. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.667836

Tran, V., Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Wang, C. (2022). Family language policies of Vietnamese–Australian families. Journal of Child Science, 12(1), e67–e78. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1743490

Troller-Renfree, S. V., Sperber, J. F., & Noble, K. G. (2023). Relations among socioeconomic status, perceived stress, and the home language environment. Journal of Child Language, 50(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000923000156

Turesky, T. K., Sanfilippo, J., Zuk, J., Ahtam, B., Gagoski, B., Lee, A., ... & Gaab, N. (2022). Home language and literacy environment and its relationship to socioeconomic status and white matter structure in infancy. Brain Structure and Function, 227(3), 981–996. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-022-02460-0

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

Wagley, N., Marks, R. A., Bedore, L. M., & Kovelman, I. (2022). Contributions of bilingual home environment and language proficiency on children’s Spanish–English reading outcomes. Child Development, 93(5), e486–e502. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13800

Wang, D. (2019). Socioeconomic status, parental engagement, and language development in rural children. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 658–669. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.719626

Weldemariam, K. (2022). The home literacy environment as a venue for fostering bilingualism and biliteracy: The case of an Ethio-Norwegian bilingual family in Oslo, Norway. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 22(4), 603–626. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984211062398

Xia, N. (2024). The impact of bilingual education on young children's cognitive development. TSSEHR, 11, 919–928. https://doi.org/10.62051/p2j7f435

Yeomans-Maldonado, G., & Mesa, C. (2021). The association of the home literacy environment and parental reading beliefs with oral language growth. Reading Research Quarterly, 56(4), 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.384

Zhang, L. (2022). The impact of socioeconomic status on home language environment in bilingual families. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 55, 104–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2020.10.001

Zhang, L., Tsung, L., & Qi, X. (2023). Home language use and shift in Australia: Trends in the new millennium. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1115108. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1115108

Zhang, X., Ma, Y., Feng, T., Zhang, V., Wu, X., Li, M., & Rozelle, S. (2023). The home language environment and early language ability in rural Southwestern China. Journal of Child Language, 51(5), 1067–1084. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000923000156

Downloads

Published

2025-04-28

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2025): April

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Budianto Hamuddin, Meutya Rizki Ramadhani, Fatma Setya Ningrum

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.