View in EDS HTML Full Text PDF Full Text

The Intertwined Development of Atayal Oral Language, Emergent Reading and Identity among Indigenous Young Children in a Bilingual Book Project

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: The Intertwined Development of Atayal Oral Language, Emergent Reading and Identity among Indigenous Young Children in a Bilingual Book Project
Language: English
Authors: Ching-Ting Hsin (ORCID 0000-0002-8880-2571), Catherine Compton-Lilly (ORCID 0000-0002-2116-7374), Di Tam Luu (ORCID 0009-0001-6892-0810)
Source: Reading Research Quarterly. 2026 61(2).
Availability: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 18
Publication Date: 2026
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Indigenous Populations, Oral Language, Beginning Reading, Preschool Children, Self Concept, Bilingualism, Books, Malayo Polynesian Languages, Cultural Background, Reading Processes, Printed Materials, Pictorial Stimuli, Cues, Memory, Instructional Materials, Material Development
Geographic Terms: Taiwan
DOI: 10.1002/rrq.70097
ISSN: 0034-0553
1936-2722
Abstract: This mixed-methods study explored the intertwined development of Atayal oral language, emergent reading-like behaviors, and cultural identity for 28 Indigenous preschoolers (average age 4.11 years) during a year-long book project. Eight early childhood and Atayal language teachers from two classrooms implemented bilingual books at two levels of difficulty. Each level was used for a semester. Pre-project, mid-project and post-project assessments related to oral language, emergent reading, and cultural identity were conducted; child interviews and observational field notes were collected. Quantitative (i.e., ANOVA with repeated measures, paired sample t-test, Pearson correlation) and qualitative analyses (i.e., coding of interview transcripts and field notes, identification/counting of reading-like behaviors) revealed significant improvement for Atayal oral language, emergent reading-like behaviors, and cultural identity after the first semester. However, further improvement on oral language and reading-like behaviors was not indicated, perhaps due to dissimilar sentence structures between level one and level two books. While this project enhanced children's attention to print and print concepts, most children continued to rely on picture cues and memory rather than phonetic cues. This study sheds light on developing and implementing materials to sustain Indigenous languages.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: EJ1503744
Database: ERIC
Full text is not displayed to guests.
FullText Links:
  – Type: pdflink
    Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwG0cw3Lj05eUcndCa9NiHK6AAAA4zCB4AYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHSMIHPAgEAMIHJBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDGotgixKh-Jp6EI7OQIBEICBm7FhhtLEiXRAC3C15T7gU34cRHa_wtuHHX-c1NtZLh9ZiM7gSe8xvPdGJ3hL-TDyS7Tyr-rEqVxQlYGWEBuqSWCH_JEZGIdsGDH__LDmnbxiSw1gXXEzOr4S0eS1xIqBZzTO1vVGGdED5bhU0GB3s6FYH75uqu6r1Td1Km6Qb35KlwmO-xGSAJZ545S2C-4rsZ_KgaTyk4zXVyVB
Text:
  Availability: 1
  Value: <anid>AN0193225964;[nrnu]02apr.26;2026Apr27.05:00;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0193225964-1">The Intertwined Development of Atayal Oral Language, Emergent Reading and Identity Among Indigenous Young Children in a Bilingual Book Project </title> <p>This mixed‐methods study explored the intertwined development of Atayal oral language, emergent reading‐like behaviors, and cultural identity for 28 Indigenous preschoolers (average age 4.11 years) during a year‐long book project. Eight early childhood and Atayal language teachers from two classrooms implemented bilingual books at two levels of difficulty. Each level was used for a semester. Pre‐project, mid‐project and post‐project assessments related to oral language, emergent reading, and cultural identity were conducted; child interviews and observational field notes were collected. Quantitative (i.e., ANOVA with repeated measures, paired sample t‐test, Pearson correlation) and qualitative analyses (i.e., coding of interview transcripts and field notes, identification/counting of reading‐like behaviors) revealed significant improvement for Atayal oral language, emergent reading‐like behaviors, and cultural identity after the first semester. However, further improvement on oral language and reading‐like behaviors was not indicated, perhaps due to dissimilar sentence structures between level one and level two books. While this project enhanced children's attention to print and print concepts, most children continued to rely on picture cues and memory rather than phonetic cues. This study sheds light on developing and implementing materials to sustain Indigenous languages.</p> <p>Keywords: cultural sustaining pedagogy; early childhood education; indigenous language; learning materials</p> <p>This study highlights a collaborative initiative with Atayal tribal leaders to co‐develop books at two levels of difficulty that feature recurring and supportive grammatical structures. Across the two levels, some books shared similar sentence structures; others did not. Findings demonstrate that the intervention successfully reinforced the intertwined development of children's Atayal oral language, emergent literacy, and cultural identity. However, progress rates varied among individuals, highlighting the need for tailored pedagogical adjustments. Crucially, books with similar sentence structures across levels provided important scaffolding as children learned to speak and read more complex sentences.</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/NRNU/02apr26/rrq70097-toc-0001.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMMvl7ESepq84yOvsOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="rrq70097-toc-0001.jpg" title="." /> </p> <p></p> <p>Language preservation, sustenance, and revitalization are primary goals for Indigenous communities worldwide. To prevent rapid and global language loss, various methods have been proposed (Chen [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref1">8</reflink>]; Peterson et al. [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref2">36</reflink>]). Research has shown that books created for young Indigenous children are valuable tools for supporting language learning and cultural identity (e.g., Hefflin and Barksdale‐Ladd [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref3">21</reflink>]; Hsin, Hsieh, et al. [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref4">24</reflink>]; Justice et al. [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref5">28</reflink>]). Importantly, when books are used to promote language learning, children experience the added benefit of exposure to written language that supports literacy learning. Through the use of books, language and literacy learning are unavoidably and reciprocally intertwined as children encounter not only spoken language, but language in its written form (e.g., literacy) (Durán et al. [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref6">16</reflink>]; Rohde [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref7">42</reflink>]; Wawire et al. [<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref8">52</reflink>]; Yeomans‐Maldonado and Mesa [<reflink idref="bib55" id="ref9">55</reflink>]). This interplay of oral language (e.g., vocabulary, semantics, pragmatics) and literacy (e.g., mapping of oral language to text, writing conventions, phonetic notation) is particularly significant when children encounter not only a new language, but a different notational system—for example, written Chinese (i.e., logographic system) versus Atayal language (i.e., phonetic system).</p> <p>Researchers have explored the effects of books on young children's development of emergent literacy skills related to concepts of print (Justice et al. [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref10">28</reflink>]) and reading‐like behaviors (Bowling and Cabell [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref11">4</reflink>]; Evans et al. [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref12">18</reflink>]), which support later literacy learning (Piasta et al. [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref13">38</reflink>]). For example, Justice et al. ([<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref14">28</reflink>]) developed bilingual books for preschoolers in Mexico, claiming that the book program helped children gain print knowledge in Spanish and English. Books not only provide context for language learning but also support emergent literacy development by providing a textual focus and picture clues that support early reading. Emerging readers use a variety of strategies to approximate conventional reading, including the use of picture cues, the development of print knowledge, the construction of meaning from text, and the application of oral language syntax to book reading (Pratt [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref15">40</reflink>]; Evans and Saint‐Aubin [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref16">17</reflink>]).</p> <p>By using books to support language learning and language sustenance, we unavoidably and inevitably provide opportunities for emergent literacy development. In particular, we support children as they move from emergent to conventional reading. To capture our focus on emergent readers, we use the term <emph>reading‐like behaviors</emph> to distinguish their emergent reading efforts from full‐fledged, conventional reading. We are fully aware that in most cases the reading behaviors of the kindergarteners in our study (ages 4–6) involved memorization and approximation rather than conventional markers of accomplished reading (e.g., decoding, word identification). Reading‐like behaviors entail the emerging efforts displayed by young readers as they mimic readers around them, learn how text works (e.g., left to right, one‐to‐one match with oral language letter/sound associations), become increasingly attuned to textual features, and learn to read in conventional ways. Across the paper, we italicize the words <emph>read</emph> and <emph>reading</emph> when referencing pre‐conventional reading to distinguish these references from conventional reading, which involves decoding, letter/sound knowledge, and word identification.</p> <p>Researchers have identified several sequential reading‐like behaviors that range from refusing to read, to labeling and story‐telling (Sulzby [<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref17">50</reflink>]; Wu and Honig [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref18">54</reflink>]). Over time, children's attention to books shifts from looking at pictures to attending to printed words (Evans et al. [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref19">18</reflink>]) and developing word‐sound knowledge (Bowling and Cabell [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref20">4</reflink>]; Morris et al. [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref21">34</reflink>]). Research on emergent reading behaviors and print knowledge has generally been conducted in dominant languages (e.g., Papadopoulos and Bourogianni [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref22">35</reflink>]; Wu and Honig [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref23">54</reflink>]), while studies on minority languages, including Indigenous languages, remain scarce.</p> <p>Children's development of oral language and literacy is also intertwined with their formation of cultural identities (Arredondo et al. [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref24">3</reflink>]; Hsin [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref25">22</reflink>]; Hsin and Yu [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref26">26</reflink>]). Children's cultural identities involve knowledge and attitudes toward their communities, the enactment of cultural practices, and identity construction (Phinney and Ong [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref27">37</reflink>]; Spencer and Markstrom‐Adams [<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref28">47</reflink>]). Hefflin and Barksdale‐Ladd ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref29">21</reflink>]) emphasized that books reflecting children's home languages and everyday practices help them connect with their cultural and linguistic communities. Similarly, Arredondo et al. ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref30">3</reflink>]) found that young Latino children who participated in Spanish‐language programs displayed stronger cultural identities and improved Spanish literacy. While previous research has emphasized reciprocal relationships among oral language, emergent literacy, and cultural identities, little is known about how books contribute to these interconnected aspects of development for young Indigenous children.</p> <p>Books that support children's development of language and identity contain critical features, including culturally relevant content (Dennis and Horn [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref31">14</reflink>]; Shedd and Duke [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref32">45</reflink>]) and simple, colorful illustrations (Shedd and Duke [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref33">45</reflink>]). Text design also plays a significant role in children's language learning. Well‐designed texts can scaffold children's acquisition of a new language (Bus et al. [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref34">6</reflink>]). For example, sentences with repeated patterns and gradually increasing complexity have been shown to support children in acquiring advanced language and literacy skills (Shedd and Duke [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref35">45</reflink>]; Swartz et al. [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref36">51</reflink>]). Building on text design guidelines suggested by previous studies, we collaborated with Tribal Leaders to incorporate Indigenous vocabulary and syntactical structures as well as cultural knowledge into the development of bilingual books at two‐levels. We then examined children's intertwined development of Atayal oral language, literacy, and cultural identity through a year‐long Atayal language project. Our study was guided by the research questions:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> What was the impact of the bilingual book project on children's development of Atayal oral language, emergent reading, and Atayal identity?</item> <p></p> <item> What was the impact of increased text complexity on children's reading‐like behaviors?</item> <p></p> <item> What relationships exist among children's development of Atayal oral language, emergent reading, and Atayal identity?</item> </ulist> <hd id="AN0193225964-3">Emergent Literacy as a Theoretical Frame</hd> <p>Children develop emergent literacy through daily exposure to print in storybooks, on screens, and in their communities. As children engage with texts, they mimic adult reading behaviors, engage in reading‐like behaviors, learn to write their names, and begin to recognize letter‐sound correspondences. Perhaps most importantly, they begin to understand that text carries meaning and enables communication as they develop awareness of how print works (Dooley [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref37">15</reflink>]; Sénéchal et al. [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref38">43</reflink>]). Concepts about print entail distinctions between images and text, understandings of word boundaries, and directionality (Justice and Ezell [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref39">29</reflink>]), which benefit children's later reading achievement (Justice and Ezell [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref40">30</reflink>]; Piasta et al. [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref41">38</reflink>]).</p> <p>Measures to assess preschoolers' concepts of print—including their understanding of various book features (e.g., title, cover) and notational features (e.g., left‐to‐right directionality, letters vs. words)—have been developed (Clay [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref42">9</reflink>]; Justice et al. [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref43">27</reflink>]; Lovelace and Stewart [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref44">32</reflink>]). These conceptual understandings have informed research designs that track the emergence of various print concepts. For example, Papadopoulos and Bourogianni ([<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref45">35</reflink>]) investigated the concepts of print for 45 Greek preschoolers. Results showed that most children were proficient with book features but had difficulty with locating a word, identifying the beginning of a line of text, and demonstrating awareness of print directionality.</p> <p>Other research has shown that the intentional referencing of print by teachers (i.e., pointing to letters while reading, modeling directionality) facilitates children's print knowledge. Justice et al. ([<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref46">31</reflink>]) assigned 106 preschoolers to comparison and experimental groups. In the experimental group, teachers used explicit print referencing strategies during group reading sessions. Children in the experimental group showed greater improvement with print concepts, alphabet knowledge, and name writing. Similarly, Evans et al. ([<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref47">18</reflink>]) videotaped 76 children aged from 36 to 73 months in Ontario. These children only shifted their attention to written words when adults intentionally pointed to text.</p> <p>As children continue to engage in reading‐like behaviors, they increasingly move toward conventional reading, increasingly attending to print features, including letters and letter sequences. While self‐correction can occur during the emergent reading based on one‐to‐one correspondence and directionality, attention to print facilitates monitoring and self‐correction (D'Agostino et al. [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref48">13</reflink>]). Self‐correction of reading can also involve attention to meaning and emerging understandings of grammatical structures and vocabulary commonly found in books (Rohde [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref49">42</reflink>]; Sénéchal et al. [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref50">43</reflink>]). Based on interviews she conducted with 77 first graders, Pratt ([<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref51">40</reflink>]) noted that as children moved toward becoming conventional readers, they increasingly monitored their reading using print knowledge (e.g., word parts, letters, morphemes), meaning (e.g., text/picture alignment), and sentence structures (e.g., grammatical cues).</p> <p>Children increasingly approximate conventional reading as they engage in reading‐like behaviors. Therefore, the tracking of reading‐like behaviors can be viewed as one measure of the degree to which a child's <emph>reading</emph> aligns with conventional reading. Furthermore, research that documents the development of reading from the use of reading‐like behaviors to conventional reading builds on observations of young readers. Early documentation of this progression from reading‐like behaviors to conventional reading was reported by Sulzby ([<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref52">50</reflink>]) who identified four generally sequential processes: (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref53">1</reflink>) refusing or unable to respond to text; (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref54">2</reflink>) attending to pictures without forming a storyline (e.g., labeling, commenting on text/pictures); (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref55">3</reflink>) linking pictures across pages to form a story, including engaging in dialogic storytelling by recruiting adults to assist; and (<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref56">4</reflink>) attempting to and often successfully reading the words in a book.</p> <p>Over time, researchers have extended these developmental findings. For example, Bowling and Cabell ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref57">4</reflink>]) identified various stages in kindergarteners' attending to print, which included dragging their fingers across the print without demonstrating letter‐sound knowledge, pointing with some letter‐sound correspondence (e.g., only one‐syllable words), and pointing to words with evidence of letter‐sound knowledge. In general, children who pointed to words and demonstrated letter‐sound knowledge revealed the development of phonological and syllable awareness (Mesmer and Williams [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref58">33</reflink>]; Morris et al. [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref59">34</reflink>]). Evans and Saint‐Aubin ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref60">17</reflink>]) used eye movement trackers to analyze the reading of French children aged 48 to 61 months and found that these preschoolers spent more time looking at pictures than print.</p> <p>Working with young Taiwanese children, Wu and Honig ([<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref61">54</reflink>]) documented a similar progression of reading‐like behaviors for young Chinese readers. They invited 82 children aged 3–4 to read the same book and identified eight emergent reading behaviors, including refusing to read, pointing to or browsing pages without verbalization, labeling or naming pictures, describing images using simple sentences, creating invented story‐like renditions of text, noticing or pointing to words but not reading, attempting to read or spell phonetic symbols (i.e., zuyin, the phonetic system used with emerging Chinese readers), and reading sections of the text independently. While most research on print knowledge and emergent reading behavior has been conducted in mainstream languages (e.g., Papadopoulos and Bourogianni [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref62">35</reflink>]; Wu and Honig [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref63">54</reflink>]), research on reading Indigenous languages warrants further attention.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-4">Bilingual Books, Language Learning, and Cultural Identity</hd> <p>To frame this analysis of the Atayal bilingual book‐making project, we review three intertwined bodies of scholarship related to the use of bilingual books, Indigenous language learning, and the formation of cultural identities. These bodies of scholarship build on the theoretical frame of emergent literacy and the developmental changes that move children from enacting reading‐like behaviors to conventional reading, highlighting intertwined considerations that can contribute to how Indigenous children simultaneously learn Indigenous languages and become readers.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-5">Bilingual Books</hd> <p>Bilingual children's books have been identified as valuable resources for preserving languages. Hadaway and Young ([<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref64">20</reflink>]) noted that bilingual books, through their diverse formats and themes, not only contributed to the revitalization of Indigenous languages but also raised awareness of non‐dominant languages. They recommended that educators use such books to develop a variety of learning activities, including listening to digital renditions, engaging with cultural activities represented in the stories, interviewing elders about traditions not mentioned in the books, and discussing issues, including language endangerment. Similarly, Weinberg and Penfield ([<reflink idref="bib53" id="ref65">53</reflink>]) collaborated with elders of the Mohave tribe in the United States to create bilingual coloring books to support children's literacy learning in the Mohave language. While these researchers recognized the value of Indigenous books in sustaining languages, they did not examine the degree to which books supported children's Indigenous language learning.</p> <p>Oral language development and literacy learning are deeply intertwined (Rohde [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref66">42</reflink>]; Wawire et al. [<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref67">52</reflink>]; Yeomans‐Maldonado and Mesa [<reflink idref="bib55" id="ref68">55</reflink>]). Developing oral language involves learning vocabulary, semantics, pragmatics, and background knowledge, which are strong predictors of later literacy learning and academic achievement (Rohde [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref69">42</reflink>]; Durán et al. [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref70">16</reflink>]). However, most research on Indigenous children's books has focused only on children's literacy development. For example, Justice et al. ([<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref71">28</reflink>]) developed 16 bilingual Maya‐Spanish books for Mexican preschoolers that included Mayan folk tales, cultural practices, and daily life stories. They assessed children's letter and print knowledge in Spanish and Mayan and found that the book program fostered preschoolers' letter knowledge in both languages and print knowledge in Spanish.</p> <p>Pietikäinen and Pitkänen‐Huhta ([<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref72">39</reflink>]) invited 100 Sámi students from ages 6 to 12 in Finland to create their own picture books. To explore how multilingual children constructed meaning while creating multimodal picture books, the researchers focused on 14 participants and collected data through interviews, observations, and samples of their work—including self‐portraits and the books they created. Analyses of the books, artifacts, and children's interviews showed that the children navigated and mobilized multilingual and multicultural resources as they wrote. For example, one child drew on knowledge of Sámi culture and language, while others incorporated ideas from children's books and tourism literature. Although this project involved older children (ages 10–12), the study provided a valuable qualitative approach for investigating Indigenous language and literacy practices.</p> <p>Among the few Indigenous book projects designed to foster both young children's oral language and emergent literacy were studies conducted by authors (Hsin, Compton‐Lilly, et al. [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref73">23</reflink>]; Hsin, Hsieh, et al. [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref74">24</reflink>]). We worked with Atayal Tribal Leaders to develop bilingual books for kindergarteners and then invited teachers to use the books with their students. An oral language test was developed to examine children's learning of target vocabulary and sentences from the books. Children were also invited to read familiar bilingual books to the researchers, who analyzed the alignment of their reading‐like behaviors and their progress toward conventional reading. After participating in the program, children improved their Atayal oral language and displayed higher scores for reading‐like behavior. We build on this prior work as we explore the intertwined development of language, literacy, and cultural identity.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-6">The Intertwined Development of Language, Literacy, and Cultural Identity</hd> <p>Children's development of language is closely linked to cultural awareness and identity formation (Compton‐Lilly et al. [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref75">11</reflink>]; Gee [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref76">19</reflink>]; Hsin and Yu [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref77">26</reflink>]). When children engage in oral language and literacy activities in their communities, they acquire "ways of talking, listening, writing, reading, acting, interacting, believing, and feeling (and us[ing] various objects, symbols, images, tools and technologies) in the service of enacting meaningful socially situated identities and activities" (Gee [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref78">19</reflink>], 35). Through these practices, children are socialized into their communities and learn culturally valued ways of using oral and written languages, as well as worldviews and values endorsed by their communities (Street [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref79">49</reflink>]). Hefflin and Barksdale‐Ladd ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref80">21</reflink>]) supported the reinforcement between literacy and identity, suggesting that reading books that involve characters, stories, and experiences from young children's communities fosters their understanding of their roles within families and communities.</p> <p>Cultural identity refers to one's cultural knowledge, sense of belonging, cultural attitude, and enactment of cultural practices (Phinney and Ong [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref81">37</reflink>]; Spencer and Markstrom‐Adams [<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref82">47</reflink>]). By age two, children begin to recognize differences among people based on observable characteristics (Ramsey [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref83">41</reflink>]). By age four, they have internalized the values, language, and cultural practices of their cultural group. Around age five, they begin to develop a sense of belonging to their cultural group, distinguishing it from other groups through physical features and cultural practices (Sheets [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref84">46</reflink>]).</p> <p>Past research has examined the interplay between young children's literacy development and cultural identities. Hsin and Yu ([<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref85">26</reflink>]) interviewed four grade one Rukai Indigenous children and collected home observations and child‐created artifacts. This research revealed that children's exposure to rich Rukai oral language and literacy resources, including traditional stories, songs, and language, positively reinforced their Rukai identities. Arredondo et al. ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref86">3</reflink>]) interviewed 25 Latino/a children (aged 5–12) in the United States who attended a Spanish‐heritage language school. The children expressed pride in speaking a language that others did not know. As the children reported, this allowed them to make friends, learn about their culture, convey secrets, help family members, and express their emotions in ways that others could not understand. In addition, the use of Spanish language contributed to the formation of Latino/a identities. In contrast, when children lacked culturally and linguistically relevant experiences, it was difficult for them to positively identify with their communities (Hsin [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref87">22</reflink>]; Hsin and Yu [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref88">26</reflink>]).</p> <p>Researchers have employed interviews, photographs, and objects to ascertain young children's development of cultural identities by tracking cultural knowledge, awareness, self‐identification, attitudes, consistency, and preferences (e.g., Hsin et al. [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref89">25</reflink>]; Serrano‐Villar and Calzada [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref90">44</reflink>]). For example, Serrano‐Villar and Calzada ([<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref91">44</reflink>]) developed an interview protocol with closed‐ and open‐ended questions to measure Latino 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds' cultural knowledge (e.g., "What makes you a Mexican boy?"), self‐identification (e.g., "Are you a Mexican boy or a Chinese boy?"), consistency (e.g., "When you grow up, will you be a Mexican American?"), and preferences (e.g., among four racially distinct dolls). They found that positive self‐identification was associated with markers of cultural awareness, practices, and knowledge. Similarly, Hsin et al. ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref92">25</reflink>]) developed a survey for assessing cultural awareness (e.g., identifying pictures of millets), self‐identification (e.g., "Are you willing to tell others you are Indigenous?"), attitudes (e.g., "Do you think Indigenous clothing is beautiful?"), and cultural practices (e.g., "How often do you learn the Indigenous language?"). When administered to 162 Indigenous 4‐ to 6‐year‐olds, they found no significant differences between children aged four and five in self‐identification, attitudes, or cultural practices, indicating above‐average development across these domains. This survey was adopted for the current study.</p> <p>In short, previous research has highlighted mutually reinforcing relationships among oral language, emergent literacy, and cultural identity. However, few studies have examined the intertwined effects of bilingual and culturally appropriate books, particularly for young Atayal children.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-7">Features of Books That Support the Development of Language and Identity</hd> <p>Books support the development of language and cultural identity for children from diverse families through content, illustrations, and the complexity of written text. When working with Indigenous communities, book content should be relevant to children and reflect their cultural heritage and practices (Dennis and Horn [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref93">14</reflink>]; Shedd and Duke [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref94">45</reflink>]). In our previous projects, we created books portraying traditional weaving practices, millet farming practices, and folktales (Hsin, Compton‐Lilly, et al. [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref95">23</reflink>]). Importantly, all books were created in collaboration with Atayal Tribal Leaders to ensure that the books accurately and appropriately represented Atayal traditions. Simple, colorful illustrations that complement the written text and accurately depict cultural practices are essential to capture and maintain young children's attention and support cultural identification (Burris and Lentz [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref96">5</reflink>]; Shedd and Duke [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref97">45</reflink>]).</p> <p>When writing texts for young children, research suggests that authors consider book length, vocabulary, and sentence structures. Swartz et al. ([<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref98">51</reflink>]) suggested that books for kindergarten beginning readers should contain five to forty words, increasing to sixty words as children move through kindergarten. When considering vocabulary, words related to familiar objects and actions are recommended. While books can also introduce children to unfamiliar words to expand their vocabularies, it is essential that these words be introduced at a reasonable pace and with sufficient support (e.g., classroom discussions, clear illustrations). Sentences with repeated syntactical patterns serve both language learning and readability by providing repetition alongside opportunities for children to learn sentence structures useful in their everyday lives (e.g., "I see...", "This is...", "I like..."). Creating books with increasing sentence complexity supports language learning at higher levels. Allen et al. ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref99">2</reflink>]) identified seven language structures that involve adding words or phrases to create increasingly complex sentences. Simple sentence structures begin with basic subject‐predicate sentences and advance through the addition of prepositions (e.g., in, at, to), conjunctions (e.g., while, and, but), and combined sentences that include prepositions and conjunctions. Next, they suggested adding relative pronouns (e.g., who, what, then), adverbial clauses, and finally creating sentences that combine multiple structures. Our project applied these guidelines to create books at two beginning levels for Atayal kindergarteners.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-8">The Atayal Bilingual Book Project</hd> <p>The bilingual books created in this study address eleven topics at three to five levels of difficulty. A teacher's guidebook provides resources and information about the cultural meanings represented, Atayal grammar, and supplemental materials (e.g., picture books, video clips, games). For our study, teachers were invited to use books designed to support Atayal language learning for kindergarteners (i.e., 4‐ to 6‐year‐olds) at two levels of difficulty. While the books addressed eleven topics, we focused on six topics, including <emph>musa' su' inu'</emph> (<emph>Where are You Going?</emph>), <emph>nanu' qani hiya'?</emph> (<emph>What is This?</emph>), <emph>nyux saku' maniq</emph> (<emph>I am Eating</emph>), <emph>hata' syaw gong</emph> (<emph>Let's Go to River</emph>), <emph>agay wah! nyux saku' mtakuy la!</emph> (<emph>Ouch! I Fell Down</emph>), and <emph>nanu' kblayun nya' ruma'</emph> (<emph>What is Made of Bamboo?</emph>). Level‐1 books were used during first semester and level‐2 during second semester. Each two‐page spread features one target sentence on the left page and a corresponding picture on the right. Sentences follow recurring grammatical structures, providing consistent frames for introducing new vocabulary. For example, the target sentence pattern <emph>skbalay __ qu ruma'</emph> (Bamboo can be used to make __) allows the insertion of target vocabulary, including <emph>ngasal</emph> (house), <emph>honggu</emph> (bridge), <emph>sguyu'</emph> (fishing trap). To create books with slightly more difficult level‐2 sentences (Allen et al. [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref100">2</reflink>]), we added new elements (e.g., prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives) to the level‐1 sentences assuming the same or very similar sentences could be used across the two levels (Table 1). However, Atayal speakers explained that this plan did not always work. For example, when we planned to add an adjective to a level‐1 sentence about a fishing rod, Tribal Leaders explained that it was not conventional to say "<emph>qruzyux boyaw maku' qani hiya'</emph> (This is my long fish rod)." Instead, they helped us to revise the sentence to read "<emph>qruzyux qu boyaw maku'</emph> (My fishing rod is long)." As a result, the sentence structures were not always parallel across book levels for the same topic, making some level‐2 books significantly more difficult. Across the six topics, two topics share similar sentence structures across the two levels, while the other four do not. Table 1 shows two levels of sentence structures for two topics, one with similar and the other with dissimilar sentence structures.</p> <p>1 TABLE Similarity and difference in sentence structures between levels one and two books.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left" /><th align="center">Similar sentence structure</th><th align="center">Different sentence structure</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">Topic</td><td align="center">nanu' kblayun nya' ruma' (What is Made of Bamboo?)</td><td align="center">hata' syaw gong (Let's Go to River)</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Level 1</td><td align="center">skbalay ngasal qu ruma.'(Bamboo can be used to make a house.)</td><td align="center">boyaw maku' qani hiya.'(This is my fishing rod.)</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Level 2</td><td align="center">skbalay ngasal ni yaba' qu ruma.'(Bamboo can be used to make a house by the father.)</td><td align="center">qruzyux qu boyaw maku'(My fishing rod is long)</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <hd id="AN0193225964-9">The Atayal Language and Schools</hd> <p>Atayal is one of the sixteen officially recognized Indigenous tribes in Taiwan. Across Taiwan, recent survey findings indicate that only 32% of Indigenous respondents identified themselves as fluent speakers of their heritage languages, while merely 7% considered themselves proficient readers (Council of Indigenous Peoples [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref101">12</reflink>]). Notably, individuals reporting stronger language abilities were predominantly aged 40 years and above, suggesting a generational decline in both spoken Atayal language fluency and literacy.</p> <p>Mandarin Chinese serves as the primary language of instruction in kindergartens located in Indigenous areas. In most cases, Indigenous children participate in a 1‐h Indigenous language class per week. The participating classroom, Mtl'ung, followed this 1‐h weekly instructional model. In contrast, only a few kindergartens implement language immersion programs, wherein a language teacher collaborates with early childhood teachers to deliver half or a full day Atayal curriculum. The second participating classroom, Matrusul, implemented a half‐day immersion program. Children at both schools had limited exposure to Atayal at home and in their communities. Most parents possess limited Atayal proficiency, and although many Indigenous children reside with their grandparents, these grandparents frequently communicate with them in Mandarin. Han children in these Indigenous communities have even fewer opportunities to encounter Indigenous languages. Consequently, kindergartens have become the primary space for fostering children's Atayal language, literacy, and identity. For most children, this book project served as the children's main source of Atayal learning, suggesting that their gains in Atayal proficiency were largely attributable to the project.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-10">Methods</hd> <p>To explore the intertwined development of Atayal oral language, literacy, and cultural identity for young children, we designed a through a year‐long case study (Stake [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref102">48</reflink>]). Specifically, we explored the impact of using an Atayal/Chinese bilingual book to explore intersections between the development of Atayal oral language, emergent reading behaviors, and their Atayal identities. In addition, we created and implemented increasingly more difficult texts to examine the feasibility of using more complex books to introduce more complex Atayal language structures. Case study was an ideal methodology for this mixed‐methods project. Focusing on each case allowed us to closely observe and examine the two focal classrooms while collecting the same data—both quantitative and qualitative—from each classroom. These parallel data sets allowed us to compare student growth in relation to Atayal oral language, emergent reading behaviors, and Atayal identity construction across the two classrooms, while also exploring the intertwined nature of these changes. While general trends across the two classrooms were observed, critical differences were also encountered in relation to teacher practices, student learning, and instructional activities.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-11">Participants</hd> <p>We recruited two classes—Mtl'ung and Mtrasul (pseudonyms are used for people and places)—and eight teachers from two Indigenous public kindergartens; the first author, Hsin, had an established relationship with these two schools and had collaborated with these teachers on Atayal‐related projects in the past. Both classrooms were located in northern Taiwan and shared the same Atayal language teacher, who is a master of the Atayal language. She provided 1 h of instruction each week for both the traditional and the immersion classes. Mtl'ung employed three early childhood teachers, while Mtrasul employed four early childhood teachers. Both classes had one Han Chinese teacher who did not speak any Atayal. While one teacher in Mtrasul spoke fluent Atayal, the other early childhood teachers spoke simple Atayal. All teachers were female (i.e., average age 44.1 years with approximately 12 years of teaching experience; Table 2). We asked the Atayal language teacher to introduce a book for 2 to 3 weeks, and the early childhood teachers to review these books at least three times a week.</p> <p>2 TABLE Teacher and classroom demographics.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Classroom and program</th><th align="center">Teacher</th><th align="center">Age</th><th align="center">Gender</th><th align="center">Cultural background</th><th align="center">Teaching year</th><th align="center">Indigenous language proficiency</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">Mtl'ung1 h per week</td><td align="center">Ciras</td><td align="center">35</td><td align="center">Female</td><td align="center">Atayal</td><td align="center">10</td><td align="center">Developing</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Wen‐Hsin</td><td align="center">46</td><td align="center">Female</td><td align="center">Han</td><td align="center">20</td><td align="center">Beginning</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Kimuy</td><td align="center">40</td><td align="center">Female</td><td align="center">Atayal</td><td align="center">16</td><td align="center">Developing</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Mtrasul½ day immersion</td><td align="center">Wan‐Li</td><td align="center">46</td><td align="center">Female</td><td align="center">Han</td><td align="center">14</td><td align="center">Beginning</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Lawa</td><td align="center">33</td><td align="center">Female</td><td align="center">Atayal</td><td align="center">5</td><td align="center">Developing</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Tzu‐Chi</td><td align="center">43</td><td align="center">Female</td><td align="center">Han</td><td align="center">17</td><td align="center">None</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Mering</td><td align="center">54</td><td align="center">Female</td><td align="center">Atayal</td><td align="center">2</td><td align="center">Fluent</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Language teacher</td><td align="center">Sayun</td><td align="center">56</td><td align="center">Female</td><td align="center">Atayal</td><td align="center">12</td><td align="center">Master</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>1 <emph>Note:</emph> Beginning = able to speak simple Atayal words and phrases; Developing = use Atayal for simple daily conversation; Fluent = use Atayal to communicate fluently with others across a vast range of contexts; Master = fluent in both oral and written Atayal.</p> <p>Twenty‐eight children—twenty girls and eight boys—participated in this study. Based on parent reports and documented in school records, twenty‐three children were Indigenous, and five children were Han Chinese. Their average age was 4 years and 11 months (Table 3). To better understand how individual children develop Atayal language and cultural identities, we asked teachers at the beginning of the program to identify twelve focal children based on their overall school performance. The language teacher confirmed that all children spoke minimal Atayal, at most a few words. Each class identified two high‐, two average‐, and two low‐performing children. At the end of the program, we selected the two children from among the six in each class who showed the greatest improvement and the least improvement with Atayal as illustrative case studies.</p> <p>3 TABLE Student demographics.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Classroom</th><th align="center"><italic>n</italic></th><th align="center">Age (months)</th><th align="center">Gender</th><th align="center">Cultural background</th></tr><tr><th align="center">Mean</th><th align="center">Female</th><th align="center">Male</th><th align="center">Indigenous</th><th align="center">%</th><th align="center">Han</th><th align="center">%</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">Mtl'ung</td><td align="center">16</td><td align="center">60</td><td align="center">11</td><td align="center">5</td><td align="center">12</td><td align="center">75</td><td align="center">4</td><td align="center">25</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Mtrasul</td><td align="center">12</td><td align="center">58</td><td align="center">9</td><td align="center">3</td><td align="center">11</td><td align="center">91</td><td align="center">1</td><td align="center">9</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Total</td><td align="center">28</td><td align="center">59</td><td align="center">20</td><td align="center">8</td><td align="center">23</td><td align="center">82</td><td align="center">5</td><td align="center">18</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <hd id="AN0193225964-12">Measures</hd> <p>Four measures were used to examine the development of Atayal language, concepts about print, the emergence of reading‐like behaviors, and cultural identity. Table 4 presents the assessment and data collection timeline.</p> <p>4 TABLE Measures and collection timeline.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Measure</th><th align="center">Description of the measure</th><th align="center">Pre</th><th align="center">Post 1</th><th align="center">Post 2</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">Oral language test</td><td align="center">Target vocabulary and sentences</td><td align="center">✓</td><td align="center">✓</td><td align="center">✓</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Concepts of print assessment</td><td align="center">Book conventions, print conventions, and notational elements</td><td align="center">✓</td><td align="center">✓</td><td align="center">✓</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Reading‐like behaviors</td><td align="center">Reading of two level‐1 books</td><td align="center">L1</td><td align="center">L1</td><td align="center">L1</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Reading of books related to two topics across 2 levels (L1 and L2 share similar sentence structures)</td><td align="center" /><td align="center">L1</td><td align="center">L2</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Indigenous children's cultural identity questionnaire</td><td align="center">Cultural identity, self‐identification, attitude, and practices</td><td align="center">✓</td><td align="center">✓</td><td align="center">✓</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>2 <emph>Note:</emph> Pre: prior to implementing the bilingual book program; Post 1: end of first semester; Post 2: end of the second semester.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-13">Atayal Oral Language Test</hd> <p>To assess the children's Atayal language production (i.e., vocabulary, sentence structure), we developed an Atayal oral language test (Cronbach's <emph>α</emph> = 0.83). Items were developed from the target vocabulary and sentences in the books. We asked the language teacher to evaluate the items to ensure face validity. To test student knowledge of Atayal vocabulary, four pictures were displayed while the interviewer played an audio recording of a word (e.g., <emph>tara'</emph> [fishing net], <emph>lihuy</emph> [forehead]). Children received 1 point for choosing the correct picture. To assess sentence production, a picture was shown while the interviewer played an audio recording of a question in both Chinese and Atayal (e.g., <emph>nanu' cyux su' niqun</emph> 你在吃什麼 [What are you eating?]; <emph>nyux su' hmswa' la</emph> 你怎麼了 [What happens to you?]). We encouraged children to respond in Atayal; however, when they could not, they were allowed to use Chinese. Two points were assigned if the child answered the question with a complete Atayal sentence and 1 point if they answered with an Atayal word or phrase.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-14">Concepts of Print Assessment</hd> <p>Similar to English, the Atayal language incorporates Romanized letters; however, uppercase letters are used only for proper nouns. Thus, to assess children's print knowledge, we modified and translated <emph>Concepts of Print Assessment</emph> (Lovelace and Stewart [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref103">32</reflink>]; Cronbach's <emph>α</emph> = 0.73). We used a book created for this project, but excluded original items (see Lovelace and Stewart [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref104">32</reflink>]) that either were not presented in this one‐sentence‐per‐page Atayal text (e.g., identifying quotation marks, identifying the last line on page), or are not relevant to written Atayal (e.g., identifying uppercase letters). The assessment consisted of fourteen items with a possible score of sixteen. Five items related to book conventions (e.g., identifying book cover, title, print vs. illustration) and another five items related to print conventions (e.g., orientation of print, left‐to‐right directionality). Four items assessed notational elements, including the identification of words and letters. Children received one point for most correct responses. For print conventions, children received two points for a correct response and one point for a partially correct response.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-15">Reading‐Like Behaviors</hd> <p>To assess children's emergent reading practices, previous studies have generally invited children to <emph>read</emph> a familiar book featuring a simple narrative (e.g., Sulzby [<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref105">50</reflink>]). However, simple Atayal storybooks are not available. Therefore, we used bilingual Atayal books that we had developed and were familiar to the children. This allowed us to target the specific Atayal words and phrases that the children had been taught.</p> <p>To investigate children's reading‐like behaviors, we videotaped the children reading target texts and analyzed their reading in terms of how accurately they <emph>read</emph>. To get a general sense of children's reading and language abilities, we divided the number of words that the children <emph>read</emph> correctly by the total number of words in the book. While we recognize that many children were relying on memory and picture clues rather than engaging in conventional reading, we were able to observe various reading‐like behaviors including pointing to words with one‐to‐one correspondence, tracking print left‐to‐right, and attending to word boundaries. We asked the children to read two level‐1 books—<emph>hata' syaw gong</emph> (<emph>Let's Go to River</emph>, level 1) and <emph>agay wah! nyux saku' mtakuy la!</emph> (<emph>Ouch! I Fell Down</emph>, level 1)—during the three evaluation sessions. To explore how the children handled books across two levels that shared similar, but slightly more difficult, sentence structures, books related to two other topics—<emph>nyux saku' maniq</emph> (<emph>I Am Eating</emph>, levels 1 and 2) and <emph>nanu' kblayun nya' ruma'</emph> (<emph>What Is Made of Bamboo?</emph> levels 1 and 2)—were used.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-16">Indigenous Children's Cultural Identity Questionnaire</hd> <p>To examine children's development of cultural identity, we adapted the <emph>Indigenous Children's Cultural Identity Questionnaire</emph> (Cronbach's <emph>α</emph> = 0.86) developed by Hsin et al. ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref106">25</reflink>]). This questionnaire includes seventeen items with a possible score of 45. Four aspects of cultural knowledge were assessed: knowledge of Indigenous practices (e.g., native plants, animals and clothing; 3 items), identification with the Atayal tribe (4 items), attitude toward Atayal culture (4 items) and frequency of participation in Atayal cultural practices (6 items). To assess children's knowledge of Indigenous practices, children received 1 point for correctly identifying native plants, animals, and clothing. For the other three aspects, children received three points, two points, and one point by pointing to a smiling face, neutral face, or sad face, representing agree/often, neutral/sometimes, and disagree/rarely.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-17">Data Collection</hd> <p>Three interviewers received training before conducting the assessments and interviews. After being introduced to each task, they practiced the assessments with each other, while the first author, Hsin, provided feedback. Each interviewer administered one or two assessments/interviews conducted in each kindergarten classroom during each testing period. Assessments lasted about 4–10 min; after children had completed two or three tasks, they were returned to class for a break before proceeding with additional assessments.</p> <p>To address Research Questions 1 and 3 (project impact; relationships among language, emergent literacy, and cultural identity), we assessed children's development of Atayal oral language, concepts of print, and cultural identity three times during the year. To track reading‐like behaviors, we videotaped children's reading and transcribed each session verbatim. The video recordings of children's reading totaled 8 h and 25 min, with each child reading for an average of 3.6 min (SD = 1.7) each session.</p> <p>To answer Research Question 2 related to the impact of text complexity, children were asked to read two topics across 2 levels, reading level‐1 books for post‐test 1 and both level‐1 and level‐2 books for post‐test 2. These reading sessions were also videotaped.</p> <p>To deepen our understanding of Research Question 3, regarding the intertwined development of Atayal language, the emergence of literacy, and cultural identity, qualitative data—including focal children's interviews, classroom observations, and reading sessions—were collected. Through in‐depth analysis of each case, we gained insights into individual differences and identified possible pedagogical adjustments to improve outcomes. Interview questions addressed children's attitudes toward and thoughts on learning Atayal and reading Atayal books, as well as reported reading strategies. For example, we asked: "Do you want to learn more Atayal?", "Do you think that learning Atayal is important?" and "How do you read Atayal?" Children's interviews were conducted at the end of each semester. Finally, we asked the early childhood teachers to videotape whenever they, the language teacher and/or the children, used the bilingual books in their classroom; these videotapes provided opportunities to not only document teaching practices in each classroom but also supplemented assessment data by providing evidence of student performance outside of assessment situations. Classroom recordings totaled 40 h and 36 min.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-18">Data Analysis</hd> <p>Mixed‐methods analyses were employed. For Research Question 1, one‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures was used to compare the differences across pre‐ and post‐tests in regard to oral language, reading‐like behaviors, print concepts, and cultural identity. When significant effects were found, Fisher's Least Significant Difference (LSD) test was conducted as a post hoc analysis to compare means across the three evaluation sessions. For Research Question 2, paired samples <emph>t</emph>‐tests were used to compare children's reading‐like behaviors while reading level 1 and 2 books across two topics. For Research Question 3, Pearson correlation analyses were computed to examine relationships among children's development of Atayal language, emergent literacy, and cultural identity at post‐test 2.</p> <p>Qualitative data analysis techniques were used to analyze children's book reading, interviews, and classroom observations based on multiple readings of the data and grounded coding based on issues and topics raised in interviews and field notes. To address our research questions, codes related to the children's development of oral language, emergent reading, and cultural identity were identified through constant comparison methods (Charmaz [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref107">7</reflink>]). Codes were merged, divided, compared, or expanded to produce our findings. For Research Question 1, regarding children's reading‐like behaviors, we analyzed transcripts of reading sessions and identified seven patterns, ranging from declining to read to pointing to words. The frequency of various reading‐like behaviors was tallied. We counted each behavior as a single behavior until the child switched to a different behavior. If a behavior occurred multiple times on the same page of text, it was counted only once. These tallies were used to track reading‐like behavior patterns for individual children and within each classroom.</p> <p>Our analysis of the impact of increased text complexity on children's reading‐like behavior (Research Question 2) and analysis of relationships among children's development of Atayal language, emergent reading, and Atayal identity (Research Question 3) relied on qualitative coding and comparative analyses of focal children's interview transcripts, classroom observations, and reading sessions.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-19">Findings</hd> <p>Our findings explore the impact of the bilingual book project on Atayal oral language, emergent literacy, and cultural identity. We documented the development of language learning, emergent literacy, and cultural identity across the school year. The effect of increased text complexity is also reported. Finally, we draw on four case studies with focal children to briefly explore the intertwined nature of language, emergent literacy, and cultural identity.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-20">Atayal Oral Language</hd> <p>Across the year‐long study, we witnessed general improvement in children's Atayal language abilities. Oral language scores, related to target vocabulary (<emph>F</emph>(1.532, 41.365) = 24.529, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001) and target sentences (<emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref108">2</reflink>, 54) = 10.652, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001) on level‐1 books, improved significantly across pre‐ and post‐tests. Large effect sizes of 0.476 (target vocabulary) and 0.283 (target sentences) were indicated (Cohen [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref109">10</reflink>]). Post hoc analysis revealed that compared to pre‐test scores, children had significantly higher Atayal vocabulary scores at both post‐test 1 (<emph>p</emph> < 0.001) and post‐test 2 (<emph>p</emph> < 0.001) (Table 5). However, there were no significant differences between post‐test 1 and post‐test 2 (<emph>p</emph> = 0.752). Regarding target sentences, compared to pre‐test, the post hoc analysis showed that children improved significantly at post‐test 1 (<emph>p</emph> = 0.001) and post‐test 2 (<emph>p</emph> = 0.001). However, similar to level‐1 target vocabulary scores, no significant difference was found between post‐test 1 and post‐test 2 in speaking level 1 target sentences (<emph>p</emph> = 0.319).</p> <p>5 TABLE The development of Atayal oral language.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Oral language</th><th align="center">Test</th><th align="center">Mean</th><th align="center">SD</th><th align="center">Post hoc</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">Vocabulary</td><td align="center">Pre‐test</td><td align="center">1.75</td><td align="center">0.75</td><td align="center">Pre‐test < Post‐test 1<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn3" />Pre‐test < Post‐test 2<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn3" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 1</td><td align="center">3.64</td><td align="center">1.68</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 2</td><td align="center">3.71</td><td align="center">1.33</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Sentence</td><td align="center">Pre‐test</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">Pre‐test < Post‐test 1<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn3" />Pre‐test < Post‐test 2<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn3" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 1</td><td align="center">2.36</td><td align="center">3.35</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 2</td><td align="center">1.86</td><td align="center">2.52</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>3 *** <emph>p</emph> < 0.001.</p> <p>Thus, children did not continue to improve their oral Atayal during the second semester, perhaps because most level‐2 books featured different sentence structures than the level‐1 books on the same topic. Importantly, when level‐1 and level‐2 books were similar, teachers tended to continue to review the level‐1 books. However, when text structures differed between level‐1 and level‐2 books, teachers tended to focus only on the level‐2 books based on their concern that reading the level‐1 books might confuse the children. Thus, level‐1 sentences and books were generally read less often during the second semester.</p> <p>Through classroom observations, we found that children used target Atayal words and sentences for answering questions, singing songs and creating texts. For example, when reading the book <emph>nanu' kblayun nya' ruma'</emph> (<emph>What Is Made of Bamboo?</emph>), Ms. Sayun asked, "What is made of bamboo?" Suyaw answered using the target vocabulary from the book about fishing, saying: <emph>boyaw</emph> (fishing rod) and <emph>sguyu'</emph> (fishing trap). In addition, teachers frequently played songs written by Tribal Leaders and based on target sentences in the books. Teachers from both classes agreed that the songs helped children learn Atayal, reporting that the children often sang the songs at home and kindergarten. If a teacher sang the first few words, the children would finish the song. According to teachers, several parents and grandparents described their children singing these songs at home.</p> <p>At the end of the school year, the children worked with classroom and language teachers to create multimodal performances in Atayal. Drawing on Atayal language learned from the texts, the Mtl'ung class created a puppet show titled <emph>musa' lmosay tanux qu Ciwas</emph> (<emph>Ciwas Goes Out to Play</emph>), depicting Ciwas' adventures as she greeted family members and observed animals. When she fell, she went home and sought comfort from her mother and enjoyed the food her mother had prepared. The Mtrasul class produced a video clip about Indigenous bamboo products, including water pipes, brooms, and cups. Target adjectives (e.g., long, short, thin) and the sentence structure "<emph>skbalay</emph> ___ <emph>qu ruma"</emph> (bamboo can be used to make ___) were used in a videotaped skit, depicting a grandmother and children discussing traditional Atayal uses of bamboo.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-21">Print Concepts</hd> <p>Across the three evaluations, the children exhibited increased print knowledge (i.e., book conventions, print conventions, notational elements) (<emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref110">2</reflink>, 54) = 28.184, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001) with a large effect size of 0.511 (Cohen [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref111">10</reflink>]). Post hoc analyses (Table 6) revealed significant improvement from pre‐test to post‐test 1 (<emph>p</emph> < 0.001) and from post‐test 1 to post‐test 2 (<emph>p</emph> < 0.05).</p> <p>6 TABLE Development of print concepts.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left" /><th align="center">Test</th><th align="center">Mean</th><th align="center">SD</th><th align="center">Post hoc</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">Print concepts (16)</td><td align="center">Pre‐test</td><td align="center">3.5</td><td align="center">2.43</td><td align="center">Pre‐test < Post‐test 1<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn6" />Pre‐test < Post‐test 2<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn6" />Post‐test 1 < Post‐test 2<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn5" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 1</td><td align="center">6.36</td><td align="center">3.12</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 2</td><td align="center">7.61</td><td align="center">3.14</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <ulist> <item>4 <emph>Note:</emph> The number in the parentheses indicates the possible full score.</item> <item>5 * <emph>p</emph> < 0.05.</item> <item>6 *** <emph>p</emph> < 0.001.</item> </ulist> <p>However, because the mean score on post‐test 2 was less than half the possible score of 16, we conducted an item analysis to identify items that were difficult for the children. In regard to print conventions at the end of the project, only four children knew where to begin the next page. Only two children could locate the end of the last sentence of the book. Although most children recognized individual letters, only three children could isolate a word within a sentence. These findings were consistent with our observation of the children's reading. As noted above, children mainly used picture cues to read and showed minimal letter‐sound knowledge, revealing limited attention to print. In addition, scores for print concepts and reading‐like behaviors did not correlate across the two evaluations (<emph>r</emph>(<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref112">26</reflink>) = 0.213, <emph>p</emph> = 0.276; <emph>r</emph>(<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref113">26</reflink>) = 0.247, <emph>p</emph> = 0.205), suggesting that their print knowledge was too limited to affect their reading‐like behaviors.</p> <p>In conclusion, while most children increasingly attended to print over time, they continued to need guidance with attending to more textual dimensions as they moved toward conventional reading.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-22">Reading‐Like Behaviors</hd> <p>Two level‐1 books were used to track children's reading‐like behaviors across the two semesters. Over the year, children improved significantly for both book 1 (<emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref114">2</reflink>, 54) = 19.086, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001) and book 2 (<emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref115">2</reflink>, 54) = 60.517, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001), with large effect sizes of 0.414 for book 1 and 0.691 for book 2 (Cohen [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref116">10</reflink>]). Table 7 revealed that children demonstrated higher reading‐like behavior scores for both books at post‐test 1 (<emph>p</emph> < 0.001) and post‐test 2 (<emph>p</emph> < 0.001) when compared to the pre‐test.</p> <p>7 TABLE ANOVA analyses of reading‐like scores across repeated measures.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Book</th><th align="center">Test</th><th align="center">Mean (%)</th><th align="center">SD</th><th align="center">Post hoc</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">hata' syaw gong (Let's Go to River), 1evel 1</td><td align="center">Pre‐test</td><td align="center">0.63</td><td align="center">3.30</td><td align="center">Pre‐test < Post‐test 1<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn7" />Pre‐test < Post‐test 2<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn7" />Post‐test 1 > Post‐test 2</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 1</td><td align="center">41.52</td><td align="center">38.86</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 2</td><td align="center">30.71</td><td align="center">31.95</td></tr><tr><td align="left">agay wah! nyux saku' mtakuy la! (Ouch! I Fell Down), 1evel 1</td><td align="center">Pre‐test</td><td align="center">0.29</td><td align="center">1.51</td><td align="center">Pre‐test < Post‐test 1<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn7" />Pre‐test < Post‐test 2<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn7" />Post‐test 1 > Post‐test 2</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 1</td><td align="center">65.21</td><td align="center">33.50</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 2</td><td align="center">56.54</td><td align="center">36.44</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>7 *** <emph>p</emph> < 0.001.</p> <p>Based on our analysis of videotapes of the children's reading during the pre‐test, almost none of the children could <emph>read</emph> Atayal. They primarily narrated the books in Chinese, using the pictures. Only a few children produced a few Atayal words that they knew or recalled from the recorded read‐aloud of the books we played for them before inviting them to read. After the first semester of the bilingual book program, many children could <emph>read</emph> complete or partial Atayal sentences. For example, during the pre‐test, Suyaw created a sentence in Chinese based on the picture of a fishing rod: "釣竿，釣竿，釣不到魚怎麼辦啊 (Fishing rod, fishing rod, what can I do if I don't catch any fish)?" At the end of the first semester, he <emph>read</emph> the sentence correctly in Atayal: <emph>boyaw maku' qani hiya'</emph> (This is my fishing rod).</p> <p>Notably, there was no significant difference in reading‐like scores between post‐tests 1 and 2, indicating that children did not recall more words when <emph>reading</emph> the same two level‐1 books at post‐test 2. For example, at post‐test 2, Suyaw recalled the phrase <emph>boyaw maku'</emph> (my fishing rod), which he had also <emph>read</emph> at post‐test 1. We attribute this lack of improvement to the significantly different sentence structures of most two‐level books, which limited children's opportunities to review level‐1 sentences when learning level‐2 sentences.</p> <p>Analyses of children's interactions with texts revealed seven reading‐like behaviors across the three evaluations (Table 8).</p> <p>8 TABLE The frequency of reading‐like behavior.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Reading‐like behavior</th><th align="center">Pre‐test</th><th align="center">Post‐test 1</th><th align="center">Post‐test 2</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">1. Declining to read</td><td align="center">91</td><td align="center">73</td><td align="center">81</td></tr><tr><td align="left">2. Not looking at the book</td><td align="center">48</td><td align="center">19</td><td align="center">17</td></tr><tr><td align="left">3. Looking at pictures</td><td align="center">322</td><td align="center">315</td><td align="center">280</td></tr><tr><td align="left">4. Attending to print and picture</td><td align="center">62</td><td align="center">13</td><td align="center">33</td></tr><tr><td align="left">5. Looking at print</td><td align="center">19</td><td align="center">23</td><td align="center">42</td></tr><tr><td align="left">6. Dragging finger across print</td><td align="center">9</td><td align="center">70</td><td align="center">41</td></tr><tr><td align="left">7. Pointing to the print</td><td align="center">4</td><td align="center">63</td><td align="center">35</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>Some children declined to read or stated that they did not know how to read. For example, Yasin stated that she did not know how to read when she encountered an illustration of a harpoon during the pre‐test. Other children did not appear to look at the book when asked to read. This behavior occurred most often during the pre‐test and gradually decreased. Looking at the picture was the most frequently observed reading behavior across the year, as children relied heavily on picture cues to help them "read" the sentences. This finding was also reflected in the children's end of the semester interviews, with most focal children reporting that they used picture cues.</p> <p>Across the sample, children displayed various print‐related reading‐like behaviors, including simultaneously looking at print and picture, looking at print, and dragging fingers across or pointing to the print. Some children readily shifted their attention between picture and print when reading a page, indicating an emerging awareness of the function of the print while continuing to rely on picture cues. This reading‐like behavior had decreased by the end of first semester, when children tended to rely on either picture or print but not both. In some cases, we suspect that children had memorized sentences and no longer needed to search multiple sources of information. Notably, this behavior increased slightly at the end of the project, which may reflect the increased demands of level‐2 texts that shared the same pictures, prompting children to search for additional textual cues.</p> <p>While few children looked at the print when <emph>reading</emph>, the number of children displaying this behavior increased from five at pre‐test 1 to nine at post‐test 2, suggesting that more children were becoming print aware. They learned that it was the print, not the pictures, that they read. Moreover, six of the nine children who displayed this behavior were from the Mtl'ung class, where teachers rarely demonstrated pointing to print, which may explain the propensity of Mtl'ung children to search for print with their eyes rather than using their fingers.</p> <p>More advanced print‐related reading behaviors included children dragging their fingers across lines of text and pointing to the print. Pointing to words while <emph>reading</emph> indicated that the children had begun to establish one‐to‐one correspondence between spoken words and written text. Across the pre‐ and post‐assessments, only four to seven children demonstrated these behaviors, and they were all from the Mtrasul class, where the teachers regularly guided children to point to the print. However, the frequency of children using their fingers to track print decreased by the end of the second semester. Based on our observations of the Mtrasul class, this may reflect fewer demonstrations by Mtrasul teachers during the second semester and their expectation that children independently use these strategies. Although some children dragged fingers across print or pointed to print, evidence of letter‐sound knowledge was minimal. In other words, while they developed some print awareness, they continued to rely on picture cues and memory more than print.</p> <p>Two metalinguistic skills, self‐correction and attending to sentence structures, were often linked to the behaviors presented in Table 8. At the end of the two semesters, six children demonstrated self‐correction, generally using picture cues. For example, during post‐test 2, when Yu'ing started to read "<emph>nyux saku' m</emph> ... (I am...)", she looked at the picture and self‐corrected, reading "<emph>agay wah! nuyx saku' mtakuy la! mxal balay qu lihuy mu</emph> (Ouch! I fell down! My forehead hurts)."</p> <p>An important feature of the level 1 bilingual books is the recurring grammatical sentence structures. This feature helped children to retrieve sentences from memory, allowing them to focus on the unique words presented on each page. We observed children drawing on recurring sentence structures when they paused and searched pictures to solve sentences. This skill was most evident when children sought the name of a body part (i.e., <emph>mxal balay qu</emph> ___ <emph>mu</emph>. My ___ hurts) as they read the book, <emph>agay wah! nyux saku' mtakuy la!</emph> (<emph>Ouch! I Fell Down</emph>, Book 2–1). These children tended to pause and look at the picture before identifying the correct body part, in Atayal or Mandarin, or admit that they did not know the Atayal word. Two children used this strategy when they <emph>read</emph> the book <emph>hata' syaw gong</emph> (<emph>Let's Go to River</emph>, level 1). These children placed their finger at the beginning of the sentence (i.e., ___ <emph>qani hiya'</emph>. This is ___), glanced at the picture, and then <emph>read</emph> the text correctly.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-23">Atayal Cultural Identity</hd> <p>During their participation in the program, children displayed increased connections to their Atayal identities (<emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref117">2</reflink>, 54) = 5.854, <emph>p</emph> = 0.005) with a large effect size of 0.178 (Cohen [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref118">10</reflink>]). Post hoc analyses revealed that when compared to pre‐test scores, post‐test 1 (<emph>p</emph> < 0.01) and post‐test 2 (<emph>p</emph> < 0.01) scores were higher (Table 9). However, there was no significant difference between post‐test 1 and post‐test 2. Specifically, although children progressed in their awareness of Atayal culture and self‐identification as Atayal over the year, their scores indicating self‐identification with Atayal communities and positive attitudes toward Atayal culture were already high at pre‐test, leaving limited room for improvement at post‐test 1 and post‐test 2. Children also showed limited improvement on scores related to the enactment of cultural practices (cultural behavior) at post‐test 2, which may stem from the fact that, compared to the first semester, children did not have increased opportunities to engage in cultural activities during the second semester.</p> <p>9 TABLE Development of Atayal cultural identity.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Aspect</th><th align="center">Test</th><th align="center">Mean</th><th align="center">SD</th><th align="center">Post hoc</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">Cultural awareness (3)</td><td align="center">Pre‐test</td><td align="center">1.18</td><td align="center">0.82</td><td align="center">Pre‐test < Post‐test 2<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn11" />Post‐test 1 < Post‐test 2<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn9" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 1</td><td align="center">1.50</td><td align="center">0.92</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 2</td><td align="center">2.04</td><td align="center">1.04</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Self‐identification (12)</td><td align="center">Pre‐test</td><td align="center">9.61</td><td align="center">2.87</td><td align="center">No significant difference</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 1</td><td align="center">9.96</td><td align="center">2.25</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 2</td><td align="center">9.22</td><td align="center">2.0</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Cultural attitude (12)</td><td align="center">Pre‐test</td><td align="center">10.07</td><td align="center">2.16</td><td align="center">No significant difference</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 1</td><td align="center">10.86</td><td align="center">1.63</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 2</td><td align="center">10.96</td><td align="center">1.53</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Cultural behavior (18)</td><td align="center">Pre‐test</td><td align="center">11.43</td><td align="center">3.58</td><td align="center">Pre‐test < Post‐test 1<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn9" />Pre‐test < Post‐test 2<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn9" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 1</td><td align="center">12.71</td><td align="center">3.34</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 2</td><td align="center">13.21</td><td align="center">2.97</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Total (45)</td><td align="center">Pre‐test</td><td align="center">30.57</td><td align="center">7.85</td><td align="center">Pre‐test < Post‐test 1<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn10" />Pre‐test < Post‐test 2<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn10" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 1</td><td align="center">33.25</td><td align="center">7.84</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Post‐test 2</td><td align="center">33.79</td><td align="center">6.90</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <ulist> <item>8 <emph>Note:</emph> The number in the parentheses indicates the full score.</item> <item>9 * <emph>p</emph> < 0.05.</item> <item>10 ** <emph>p</emph> < 0.01.</item> <item>11 *** <emph>p</emph> < 0.001.</item> </ulist> <hd id="AN0193225964-24">The Effects of Text Complexity</hd> <p>To better understand the effects of text complexity, we explored results for level‐1 and level‐2 books that shared similar, but increasingly complicated, sentence structures. Table 10 showed that children gained higher scores on level‐2 than level‐l books when level‐1 and level‐2 books had more similar sentence structures. The finding highlighted the importance of making incremental changes to sentence structures when developing more difficult children's books, allowing children to build on known sentence structures as they gradually learn more complex language patterns. Our observations on the focal child, Suyaw, revealed a similar pattern. Since most of the two‐level books differed in sentence structure, he explained in the interview that the level‐2 books were too difficult for him. When <emph>reading</emph> them, he could only recite vocabulary shared across both levels.</p> <p>10 TABLE Reading‐like behaviors of two‐level books with similar sentence structures.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Book</th><th align="center">Level</th><th align="center">Mean (%)</th><th align="center">SD</th><th align="center"><italic>t</italic></th><th align="center"><italic>p</italic></th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">nyux saku' maniq (I Am Eating)</td><td align="center">1</td><td align="center">39.29</td><td align="center">39.12</td><td align="center">1.42</td><td align="center">0.168</td></tr><tr><td align="center">2</td><td align="center">48.77</td><td align="center">33.58</td></tr><tr><td align="left">nanu' kblayun nya' ruma' (What Is Made of Bamboo?)</td><td align="center">1</td><td align="center">12.79</td><td align="center">29.30</td><td align="center">2.21</td><td align="center">0.036<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn12" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center">2</td><td align="center">17.86</td><td align="center">29.65</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>12 * <emph>p</emph> < 0.05.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-25">The Intersection of Atayal Language, Literacy and Identity</hd> <p>Pearson correlational analysis was used to examine relationships among children's development of Atayal oral language, reading‐like behaviors, and Atayal identification at the end of the program. Table 11 presents correlated variables and reveals a strong positive correlation between oral language and reading‐like behaviors (<emph>r</emph>(<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref119">26</reflink>) = 0.60, <emph>p</emph> = 0.001), moderate positive correlations between oral language and cultural awareness (<emph>r</emph>(<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref120">26</reflink>) = 0.40, <emph>p</emph> = 0.036), and moderate positive correlations between reading‐like behaviors and cultural awareness (<emph>r</emph>(<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref121">26</reflink>) = 0.39, <emph>p</emph> = 0.041). These results suggest that children's oral Atayal language, emergent reading skills, and knowledge about Indigenous cultures are significantly intertwined.</p> <p>11 TABLE The relationships among children's oral language, reading‐like behaviors, and cultural awareness in post‐test 2.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Variable</th><th align="center">Oral language</th><th align="center">Reading‐like behaviors</th><th align="center">Cultural awareness</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">Oral language</td><td align="center">1.00</td><td align="center" /><td align="center" /></tr><tr><td align="left">Reading‐like behaviors</td><td align="center">0.60<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn14" /></td><td align="center">1.00</td><td align="center" /></tr><tr><td align="left">Cultural awareness</td><td align="center">0.40<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn13" /></td><td align="center">0.39<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn13" /></td><td align="center">1.00</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <ulist> <item>13 * <emph>p</emph> < 0.05.</item> <item>14 ** <emph>p</emph> < 0.01.</item> </ulist> <p>To illustrate these findings, we used scatter plots to depict relationships between Atayal language learning, emergent literacy, and cultural awareness for 28 participating children. Figures 1 and 2 show that the three developmental dimensions reinforced one another to varying degrees. In other words, children showed small, moderate, and/or great improvement in the development of these three aspects.</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/NRNU/02apr26/rrq70097-fig-0001.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMMvl7ESepq84yOvsOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="rrq70097-fig-0001.jpg" title="1 3‐D plot of 28 children's three developmental dimensions." /> </p> <p></p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/NRNU/02apr26/rrq70097-fig-0002.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMMvl7ESepq84yOvsOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="rrq70097-fig-0002.jpg" title="2 Scatter plots of two developmental dimensions." /> </p> <p></p> <p>To deepen our understanding of the varied effects that the bilingual book program had on individual children, we examined qualitative and quantitative data for four of the twelve focal children (Table 12). Specifically, we selected the two children in each classroom who showed the greatest and least improvement in Atayal language. As displayed in Figures 1 and 2, children (Yasin, Iban) who made the greatest gains with Atayal learning during the bilingual book program also made significant gains with emergent literacy and cultural identity. Among the two children with the smallest gains in learning Atayal, one student, Cisan, made moderate to low gains with emergent literacy and cultural identity, suggesting that her limited learning of Atayal may have limited her progress with emergent literacy and cultural identity. The other low‐performing student, Hayut, was an outlier. Her comparatively high scores related to cultural identity do not correlate with her lower score with Atayal language performance and emergent literacy. Close examination of these cases highlights individual differences and points to the need for instructional adjustments based on the different attitudes and interests that children bring to native language learning.</p> <p>12 TABLE The quantitative data of the four focal children.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Name</th><th align="center">Class</th><th align="center">Gender</th><th align="center">Age</th><th align="center">Impact</th><th align="center">Oral language</th><th align="center">Reading‐like behaviors (%)</th><th align="center">Print concepts</th><th align="center">Cultural identity</th></tr><tr><th align="center">PRE</th><th align="center">PO1</th><th align="center">PO2</th><th align="center">Pre Ave.</th><th align="center">PO1 Ave.</th><th align="center">PO2 Ave.</th><th align="center">PRE</th><th align="center">PO1</th><th align="center">PO2</th><th align="center">PRE</th><th align="center">PO1</th><th align="center">PO2</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">Yasin</td><td align="center">Mtl'ung</td><td align="center">Girl</td><td align="center">5;6</td><td align="center">Great</td><td align="center">1</td><td align="center">13</td><td align="center">13</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">97</td><td align="center">100</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">5</td><td align="center">8</td><td align="center">40</td><td align="center">39</td><td align="center">38</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Iban</td><td align="center">Mtrasul</td><td align="center">Boy</td><td align="center">4;1</td><td align="center">Great</td><td align="center">2</td><td align="center">11</td><td align="center">12</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">80</td><td align="center">69</td><td align="center">10</td><td align="center">12</td><td align="center">12</td><td align="center">24<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn15" /></td><td align="center">28<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn15" /></td><td align="center">30<xref ref-type="fn" rid="tfn15" /></td></tr><tr><td align="left">Cisan</td><td align="center">Mtrasul</td><td align="center">Girl</td><td align="center">5;0</td><td align="center">Moderate</td><td align="center">1</td><td align="center">5</td><td align="center">4</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">32</td><td align="center">38</td><td align="center">1</td><td align="center">6</td><td align="center">11</td><td align="center">33</td><td align="center">29</td><td align="center">37</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Hayut</td><td align="center">Mtl'ung</td><td align="center">Girl</td><td align="center">5;5</td><td align="center">Outliner</td><td align="center">2</td><td align="center">5</td><td align="center">3</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">81</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">4</td><td align="center">6</td><td align="center">8</td><td align="center">34</td><td align="center">39</td><td align="center">43</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>15 a The full score of cultural identity for Iban is 33, while for others is 45. Due to his Han Chinese background, the section of identification with the Atayal tribe was not applicable.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-28">Iban and Yasin: Significant Improvement</hd> <p>Yasin is an Atayal girl at Mtl'ung. Her Atayal language, emergent literacy, and cultural identity improved concurrently. Testifying to her strong oral language, Yasin was chosen as the protagonist in the class Atayal puppet show. Ms. Ciras recalled that after the whole class rehearsed the script, Yasin was selected due to her outstanding ability to learn lines in Atayal. Yasin regularly used Atayal words when interacting with her teachers during Atayal language class. For example, when Ms. Sayun told a story and asked questions, Yasin readily responded in Atayal:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Ms. Sayun Do you remember what (animals were mentioned) before?</item> <p></p> <item> Yasin The first one is kacing (ox).</item> <p></p> <item> Ms. Sayun The first one is kacing (ox). What is the second one? The bear, right? ngarux (bear). How about the third one? bzyok qnhun (wild boar). The fourth one?</item> <p></p> <item> Yasin para (Formosan muntjac).</item> <p></p> <item> Ms. Sayun The fifth one?</item> <p></p> <item> Yasin huzil (dog).</item> </ulist> <p>Yasin <emph>read</emph> Atayal sentences fluently <emph>reading</emph> almost every word at post‐test 1, and every word correctly at post‐test 2. She tended to search for pictures rather than print to support her <emph>reading</emph>. Yasin was often asked to lead her classmates by reading sentences aloud and having her classmates echo the sentences. Ms. Ciras reported that Yasin often went to the reading center after she finished her lunch and always chose Atayal books which she read with peers. She sometimes corrected her classmate's attempts.</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Classmate qani ga, huzil (This is a dog).</item> <p></p> <item> Yasin This is not huzil; huzil is a dog.</item> <p></p> <item> Ms. Ciwas What is this?</item> <p></p> <item> Yasin qani ga, kacing. This is an ox.</item> </ulist> <p>Ms. Ciwas reported that Yasin also <emph>read</emph> the Atayal books at home. Yasin's grandparents were amazed at Yasin's ability to <emph>read</emph> Atayal and celebrated her efforts. Because Yasin's grandparents could not read Romanized letters, Yasin read the Atayal books to them.</p> <p>Yasin received a high score on the identity questionnaires at pre‐test and across the program. Her final interview revealed that she considered learning Atayal important and wanted to learn more. She believed that Atayal people should be good at speaking Atayal.</p> <p>Iban, a Han Chinese boy, had the highest oral language and literacy scores in the Mtrasul class. He frequently used Atayal to answer the language teacher's questions. For example, when Ms. Sayun reviewed the book about animals, Iban actively answered the teacher's questions:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Ms. Sayun I believe that you guys have learned a lot of qsinuw (animals), right?</item> <p></p> <item> Iban Yes, (We have learned) huzil (dog). ...</item> <p></p> <item> Ms. Sayun How do you say cow (in Atayal)?</item> <p></p> <item> Iban kacing (cow)</item> </ulist> <p>Iban had high emergent reading scores compared to his peers. While his scores on level‐1 books declined at post‐test 2, he <emph>read</emph> the level‐2 sentences perfectly. We often observed him <emph>reading</emph> alone and was sometimes asked by his teachers to review the bilingual books with his classmates. When asked to read, he was the only child who consistently pointed to the words or dragged his finger across the print, indicating his growing awareness of print conventions. Iban's print awareness scores were high at the pretest and improved over the year. Iban was beginning to develop metalinguistic skills and was sometimes able to self‐correct. For example, when he misread a page about a diving mask saying "<emph>nyux</emph>" (It), he paused, consulted the picture, thought, and then corrected himself reading "kkita' nya' qani hiya" (This is his diving mask).</p> <p>Despite his Han Chinese background, Iban solidified his identification with Atayal people and culture across the year. He attained an almost perfect score on the identity questionnaire at the end of the program. During his initial interview, Iban indicated that he wanted to learn Atayal language in order to become an Atayal language teacher. He explained that learning Atayal would help him to teach his family and others how to speak Atayal.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-29">Cisan: Minimal to Moderate Improvement</hd> <p>Cisan is an Atayal girl in the Mtrasul class. While she was not among the lowest performing children across 28 children, she was the student who made the least improvement in the Mtrasul class. Despite her slower progress, Cisan did simultaneously develop Atayal oral language, literacy, and identity; she only had low to moderate improvement. Based on classroom observations, Cisan paid attention during language lessons and answered questions when called upon; however, she rarely volunteered. Cisan seldom <emph>read</emph> the bilingual books by herself or with peers, limiting her exposure to the books. At her post‐reading evaluations, she only <emph>read</emph> a small portion of Book 2‐1 and did not <emph>read</emph> Book 1‐1. Cisan received an average score on cultural identity at post‐test 2. Her full score on the Atayal identity questionnaire was low at post‐test 1 but increased greatly at post‐test 2. During her first interview, she neither wanted nor liked to learn Atayal. In contrast, at her second interview, she expressed her desire to learn Atayal, a language she reported was important. In short, Cisan exhibited below‐average performance with spoken and written Atayal while demonstrating some development of her Atayal identity.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-30">Hayut: Mixed Improvement</hd> <p>Hayut is an Atayal girl in the Mtl'ung class. According to Figure 1, she was one of the children with comparatively low Atayal performance at the end of the second semester. Hayut scored low with Atayal oral language both semesters and scored a zero on <emph>reading</emph> at the end of the program, mainly focusing on pictures or read aloud in Mandarin. Classroom observations revealed that she was easily distracted and did not always pay attention to her teachers. She spoke little Atayal and rarely answered the language teacher's questions. She had difficulty focusing on the long explanations and instructions provided by the language teacher. During the first semester, Hayut frequently read books with peers in the reading center and received high reading‐like scores after the first semester. However, these reading‐like activities declined during the second semester. At both interviews, Hayut indicated that she wanted to learn more Atayal and recognized its importance, which was reflected in her high scores on the identity questionnaire. While Hayut showed relatively low achievement with oral language and emergent literacy, her growing sense of Atayal identity may motivate her to learn Atayal language in the future.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-31">Discussion</hd> <p>This bilingual book project revealed several key insights into young children's development. First, culturally grounded books effectively supported the intertwined growth of oral language, emergent literacy, and cultural identity among Indigenous children. However, the project's effects varied across individuals, highlighting the different ways that young Indigenous learners approach language and literacy. This finding reveals the need to calibrate instruction to better support children who bring different experiences and proclivities to language and literacy learning. Finally, this study provides clues about how well‐designed written texts can foster language and literacy learning while honoring cultural differences and practices. We unpack these findings and consider their educational implications and limitations.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-32">The Interrelated Reinforcement: Language Learning, Emergent Literacy and Cultural Identify De...</hd> <p>Children's development of oral language, emergent reading, and cultural identity are intertwined (Arredondo et al. [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref122">3</reflink>]; Hsin [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref123">22</reflink>]; Yeomans‐Maldonado and Mesa [<reflink idref="bib55" id="ref124">55</reflink>]). While previous research on language programs has tended to address only one or two of these aspects (e.g., Arredondo et al. [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref125">3</reflink>]; Pietikäinen and Pitkänen‐Huhta [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref126">39</reflink>]), this study provides both quantitative and qualitative evidence that bilingual books can effectively foster oral language development, emergent literacy, and cultural identity development. Quantitative data showed general improvement in children's scores across these areas over time. Classroom observations and interviews further revealed that most children were actively engaged in classroom activities, used target words and sentences to create texts, and expressed strong interest in learning and speaking more Atayal.</p> <p>In general, children's development of language, literacy, and cultural identity were intertwined and synergistic. Table 11 reveals that, for most children, the three aspects are intertwined. As illustrated by the cases of Yasin and Iban, both children demonstrated not only high Atayal language performance but also displayed notable emerging literacy skills and a strong sense of cultural identity. Their growth was displayed through multiple measures, the documentation of reading‐like behaviors, and through their interactions with the teachers, peers, and their expressed desire to learn more Atayal language.</p> <p>While previous studies have revealed the general effects of book programs (Hsin, Hsieh, et al. [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref127">24</reflink>]; Justice et al. [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref128">28</reflink>]), this study deepens our understanding by highlighting the complex and intertwined effects on children's development across the three dimensions. Uncovering these nuanced impacts offers valuable insights that can inform pedagogical adjustments to address individual learning needs. For example, Cisan and Hayut demonstrated below‐average to low Atayal language performance, which may be attributable to their low engagement in class. However, their growing identification with the Atayal community appears to serve as a crucial motivation for further language development.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-33">Fostering Emergent Reading of Atayal Texts</hd> <p>Previous studies have examined young children's print concepts and reading‐like behaviors in dominant languages, including French, Greek, English and Chinese (e.g., Evans and Saint‐Aubin [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref129">17</reflink>]; Papadopoulos and Bourogianni [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref130">35</reflink>]; Sulzby [<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref131">50</reflink>]; Wu and Honig [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref132">54</reflink>]). The current study provides an in‐depth exploration of children's emergent literacy with Atayal texts. In regard to print concepts, many children had difficulty identifying notational elements, including isolating and reading Atayal words, and identifying the first or the last word in a book. These challenges may be attributed to their limited exposure to books written in Atayal, which is significantly different from written Chinese, and may have hindered the learning of Atayal letters and letter‐sound correspondences. In contrast, children performed comparatively better on items related to book conventions (e.g., identifying the book cover, title, print vs. picture). While the two languages—Chinese and Atayal are different in terms of notational systems (i.e., logographic vs. phonetic) modern Chinese books have adapted Western book conventions (i.e., front‐to‐back, left‐to‐right, top‐to‐bottom). Given that the children more frequently engaged with books written in Chinese than Atayal, it is plausible that similar conventions transferred more readily.</p> <p>This project provided the children with early opportunities to read Atayal texts. They demonstrated emergent reading behaviors including: declining to read, not looking at the book, looking at pictures, attending to print and pictures, looking at print, dragging finger across print, and pointing to words. Consistent with previous studies (e.g., Evans and Saint‐Aubin [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref133">17</reflink>]; Sulzby [<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref134">50</reflink>]), some children shifted their attention from pictures to print, while most children continued to rely on picture cues to recall memorized sentences. As shown in Table 8, the frequency of searching for pictures gradually decreased; however, it remained the most common reading‐like behavior across the three assessment periods. Moreover, consistent with Pratt ([<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref135">40</reflink>]), our observations revealed that children frequently used picture cues and sentence structure to self‐correct, an advanced metalinguistic skill. However, phonetic decoding was rare given the children's limited knowledge of letter‐sound correspondence.</p> <p>This study provides insight into the contribution of instructional practices that address the development of concepts about print. When <emph>reading</emph>, only nine of the 28 children looked at the print, and only seven children used their fingers to track lines of text. Most of these children were from the Mtrasul classroom. Compared to Mtl'ung teachers, Mtrasul teachers regularly guided children to point to the print during reading activities. However, during the second semester, Mtrasul children decreased their use of pointing to track the print. This change coincided with a reduction in Mtrasul teachers' modeling and encouraging this strategy. Similarly, this study revealed that many children had limited knowledge of text directionality and word identification. Scores for these print concepts were generally low, and there was no significant correlation between print concepts and reading‐like behavior scores. These results are consistent with previous studies (Papadopoulos and Bourogianni [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref136">35</reflink>]; Piasta et al. [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref137">38</reflink>]), implying that young children with limited print knowledge require guidance from adults.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-34">The Role of Well‐Designed Texts in Children's Reading</hd> <p>Previous studies have suggested guidelines for text design to facilitate children's reading (e.g., Allen et al. [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref138">2</reflink>]; Swartz et al. [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref139">51</reflink>]). Our study followed these guidelines to develop books while investigating the contribution of sentences with increasingly complicated syntactic for language learning. While sentences with consistent syntactical structures allow the children to focus on target vocabulary while being supported by picture cues to solve words and make self‐corrections (Pratt [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref140">40</reflink>]), sentences with increasingly complex syntactical structures provide opportunities to learn increasingly complex language patterns. Alongside readings of the books, incrementally more complex sentence patterns enabled children to develop language skills within short periods of time. Children's language learning was evidenced by increasing reading‐like behavior scores and movement toward conventional reading across the project.</p> <p>Our study revealed that when sentence structure was incrementally increased across two levels, children were generally able to learn the more advanced sentences (Table 10). In contrast, when books featured sentence structures that differed significantly across two levels, children generally maintained but did not improve their level‐1 spoken Atayal and reading‐like behavior scores (Tables 5 and 7) in the second semester and it was challenging for them to learn the more complex level‐2 sentences. When the teachers guided them to read level‐2 books that were significantly more complicated, the children were essentially learning new sentences that did not correspond with the level‐1 sentences that they had learned. In fact, a focal child, Suyaw, reported that the level‐2 books were too difficult for him to read. When <emph>reading</emph> the level‐2 books, he only <emph>read</emph> the target vocabulary that was shared by the two levels. In addition, we recognized the need for more opportunities for the children to continue to review the level‐1 books. Although the level‐1 books were available in the classroom reading centers, children rarely reread these books on their own or in class once the class had moved on to level‐2 books.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-35">Educational Implications</hd> <p>We offer several practical recommendations for researchers and educators when developing and implementing a book program to sustain Indigenous languages. First, culturally sustaining bilingual books are effective tools for Indigenous children to learn their native languages, enhance their reading abilities, and strengthen their cultural identities. To enhance the impact of these books, the text design must be carefully considered. Repeated sentence patterns and a gradual increase in complexity through similar sentence structures are effective design features for advancing children's language skills. Second, young children mainly relied on picture cues to read. To improve their reading abilities, we suggest that teachers intentionally raise children's print awareness by pointing to the print when reading aloud, guiding children to locate words, and showing children where to start reading on a page (Piasta et al. [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref141">38</reflink>]). Third, the effects of book programs differ for individual children. When children show low engagement with books, we suggest that teachers maintain children's attention through activities that include storytelling, singing, and games. Collaborative learning can also be beneficial for low‐performing children (Albuquerque and Martins [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref142">1</reflink>]). A wide range of strategies can be used to scaffold and engage children as they learn a new language, such as making connections to children's lived experiences and using Atayal sentences in authentic contexts (Hsin, Hsieh, et al. [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref143">24</reflink>]). Finally, many early childhood teachers were reluctant to implement Indigenous language programs due to their own limited proficiency with Atayal. As evidenced by this study, strengthening collaboration between early childhood and language teachers can enhance children's Indigenous language learning. In addition, the simple Atayal texts that we designed and the accompanying audio recordings also helped teachers learn Atayal words and phrases. Sustained collaboration depends on policies that offer adequate resources to help classroom teachers improve their language proficiency and pedagogical capacity.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-36">Limitations</hd> <p>This study has limitations. First, our small sample size limits the possibility of generalizability. While our results offer insights into the development of oral language, literacy, and cultural identity for Indigenous children, larger samples would allow for stronger statistical generalization. Second, this study did not include a control group. By using a pre–post design and considering that the book project served as the primary resource for instruction related to Atayal language and cultural identity, we maintain that children's gains were primarily attributable to the project. Nevertheless, a control group using established language teaching approaches would have provided stronger comparative evidence of the project's effectiveness.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-37">Conclusion</hd> <p>This study provides evidence that this bilingual book project supported children's intertwined development of Atayal language, emergent literacy, and cultural identity. Many children continued to rely on pictures during reading, underscoring the importance of adult support in fostering print awareness for advanced reading skills. To enhance the effects of a book program, text design with appropriate sentence structure and incrementally increasing sentence complexity must be carefully considered. This study offers valuable insight into the development and implementation of bilingual books as a means to sustain Indigenous languages.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-38">Acknowledgments</hd> <p>This study was supported by the National Science and Technology Council in Taiwan under NSTC 111‐2410‐H‐007‐048‐MY2.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-39">Conflicts of Interest</hd> <p>The authors declare no conflicts of interest.</p> <hd id="AN0193225964-40">Data Availability Statement</hd> <p>The authors have nothing to report.</p> <ref id="AN0193225964-41"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref53" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Albuquerque, A., and M. A. Martins. 2020. "Invented Spelling Activities in Kindergarten: The Role of Instructional Scaffolding and Collaborative Learning." International Journal of Early Years Education29, no. 1: 96–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2020.1760085.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref54" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Allen, B., A. Briceno, A. Klein, et al. 2013. Teacher's Guide. Hameray Publishing Group.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref24" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Arredondo, M. M., M. Rosado, and T. Satterfield. 2016. "Understanding the Impact of Heritage Language on Ethnic Identity Formation and Literacy for U.S. Latino Children." Journal of Cognition and Culture16, no. 3–4: 245–266. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685373‐12342179.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref11" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Bowling, E. C. C., and S. Q. Cabell. 2019. "Developing Readers: Understanding Concept of Word in Text Development in Emergent Readers." Early Childhood Education Journal47, no. 2: 143–151. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643‐018‐0902‐1.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref96" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Burris, N. A., and K. A. Lentz. 1983. "Caption Books in the Classroom." Reading Teacher36, no. 9: 872–875. <ulink href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/20198351">http://www.jstor.org/stable/20198351</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" idref="ref34" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> Bus, A. G., Z. K. Takacs, and C. A. T. Kegel. 2015. "Affordances and Limitations of Electronic Storybooks for Young Children's Emergent Literacy." Developmental Review35: 79–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2014.12.004.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" idref="ref107" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> Charmaz, K.2006. Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. Sage.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" idref="ref1" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> Chen, S.‐L.2020. "談沉浸式族語教學現況:以民生國小附幼Tumaz班布農族族語為例 [Aboriginal Language Immersion Program: A Case of Tumaz Class in the Kindergarten of Minseng Elementary School in Kaohsiung City]." Early Childhood Education330: 39–53.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" idref="ref42" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> Clay, M. M.1972. Sand: The Concepts About Print Test. Heinemann.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Cohen, J.1988. Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. 2nd ed. Sage.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Compton‐Lilly, C., K. Papoi, P. Venegas, L. Hamman, and B. Schwabenbauer. 2017. "Intersectional Identity Negotiation: The Case of Young Immigrant Children." Journal of Literacy Research49, no. 1: 115–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X16683421.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Council of Indigenous Peoples. 2016. 原住民族語言調查研究三年實施計畫報告 [Three‐Year Survey for Indigenous Languages: Executive Summary]. Council of Indigenous Peoples in Taiwan.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> D'Agostino, J. V., R. H. Kelly, and E. Rodgers. 2019. "Self‐Corrections and the Reading Progress of Struggling Beginning Readers." Reading Psychology40, no. 6: 525–550. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2019.1629518.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Dennis, L. R., and E. Horn. 2011. "Strategies for Supporting Early Literacy Development." Young Exceptional Children14, no. 4: 29–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096250611420553.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Dooley, C. M.2010. "Young Children's Approaches to Books: The Emergence of Comprehension." Reading Teacher64, no. 2: 120–130.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Durán, L., A. Wackerle‐Hollman, A. Miranda, et al. 2022. "Spanish and English Oral Language Growth Rates of Bilingual Preschoolers: The Effect of Language of Instruction." Learning Disabilities Research & Practice37, no. 3: 175–188. https://doi.org/10.1111/ldrp.12287.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Evans, A. M., and J. Saint‐Aubin. 2005. "What Children Are Looking at During Shared Storybook Reading: Evidence From Eye Movement Monitoring." Psychological Science16, no. 11: 913–920. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467‐9280.2005.01636.x.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Evans, M. A., K. Williamson, and T. Pursoo. 2008. "Preschoolers' Attention to Print During Shared Book Reading." Scientific Studies of Reading12, no. 1: 106–129. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888430701773884.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Gee, J. P.2003. "A Sociocultural Perspective on Early Childhood Development." In Handbook of Early Literacy Research, edited by S. B. Neuman and D. K. Dickinson, vol. 1, 30–42. Guilford Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hadaway, N. L., and T. A. Young. 2014. "Preserving Languages in the New Millennium: Indigenous Bilingual Children's Books." Childhood Education90, no. 5: 358–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2014.952569.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hefflin, B. R., and M. A. Barksdale‐Ladd. 2001. "African American Children's Literature That Helps Students Find Themselves: Selection Guidelines for Grades K‐3." Reading Teacher54, no. 8: 810–819. https://<ulink href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204996">www.jstor.org/stable/20204996</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hsin, C.‐T.2017. "Young Children's Learning of Literacies in Transnational and Sociocultural Contexts in Families With Immigrant Mothers in Taiwan." Australasian Journal of Early Childhood42, no. 1: 33–40. https://doi.org/10.23965/AJEC.42.1.04.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hsin, C.‐T., C. Compton‐Lilly, M.‐F. Hsieh, and D. T. Luu. 2025. "Creating Books and Sustaining Indigenous Languages With Two Atayal Communities." Journal of Early Childhood Literacy25, no. 2: 394–421. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984231161116.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hsin, C.‐T., M.‐F. Hsieh, Y.‐L. Tsao, W.‐C. Chang, and C. Compton‐Lilly. 2025. "Teaching and Learning Indigenous Languages: An Atayal Book Project." Journal of Early Childhood Literacy25, no. 3: 556–586. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251320869.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hsin, C.‐T., D. T. Luu, and H.‐K. Wu. 2020. "Developing and Validating a Questionnaire to Measure Young Indigenous Children's Ethnic Identity." Paper presented at, 11th International Conference on Educational Innovation (ICEI), Hsinchu, Taiwan, November 13–14.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hsin, C.‐T., and C. Y. Yu. 2021. "Literacy and Identity Development of Indigenous Rukai Children." Journal of Literacy Research53, no. 3: 313–335. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X211030470.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Justice, L. M., R. P. Bowles, and L. E. Skibbe. 2006. "Measuring Preschool Attainment of Print‐Concept Knowledge: A Study of Typical and At‐Risk 3‐ to 5‐Year‐Old Children Using Item Response Theory." Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools37, no. 3: 224–235. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161‐1461(2006/024).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Justice, L. M., J. Dynia, M. Hijlkema, and A. Chan. 2020. "Designing and Implementing a Bilingual Early‐Literacy Program in Indigenous Mexico Villages: Family, Child, and Classroom Outcomes." Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice20, no. 2: 1–15. https://doi.org/10.12738/jestp.2020.2.001.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Justice, L. M., and H. K. Ezell. 2001. "Word and Print Awareness in 4‐Year‐Old Children." Child Language Teaching and Therapy17, no. 3: 207–225. https://doi.org/10.1177/026565900101700303.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Justice, L. M., and H. K. Ezell. 2004. "Print Referencing: An Emergent Literacy Enhancement Strategy and Its Clinical Applications." Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools35, no. 2: 185–193. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161‐1461(2004/018).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Justice, L. M., J. N. Kaderavek, X. Fan, A. Sofka, and A. Hunt. 2009. "Accelerating Preschoolers' Early Literacy Development Through Classroom‐Based Teacher‐Child Storybook Reading and Explicit Print Referencing." Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools40, no. 1: 67–85. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161‐1461(2008/07‐0098).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lovelace, S., and S. R. Stewart. 2007. "Increasing Print Awareness in Preschoolers With Language Impairment Using Non‐Evocative Print Referencing." Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools38, no. 1: 16–30. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161‐1461(2007/003).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Mesmer, H. A. E., and T. O. Williams. 2015. "Examining the Role of Syllable Awareness in a Model of Concept of Word: Findings From Preschoolers." Reading Research Quarterly50, no. 4: 483–497. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.111.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Morris, D., J. W. Bloodgood, R. G. Lomax, and J. Perney. 2003. "Developmental Steps in Learning to Read: A Longitudinal Study in Kindergarten and First Grade." Reading Research Quarterly38, no. 3: 302–328. https://<ulink href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/4151821">www.jstor.org/stable/4151821</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Papadopoulos, I., and M. Bourogianni. 2024. "Delving Into Word and Print Awareness in 4‐Year‐Old Children." British Journal of Education12, no. 3: 41–54. https://doi.org/10.37745/bje.2013/vol12n34154.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Peterson, S. S., Y. Manitowabi, and J. Manitowabi. 2021. "The Niichii Project: Revitalizing Indigenous Language in Northern Canada." TESOL in Context30, no. 1: 85–104. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.502283338643615.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Phinney, J. S., and A. D. Ong. 2007. "Ethnic Identity Development in Immigrant Families." In Immigrant Families in Contemporary Society, edited by J. E. Lansford, K. Deater‐Deckard, and M. H. Bornstein, 51–68. Guilford Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Piasta, S., L. Justice, A. McGinty, and J. Kaderavek. 2012. "Increasing Young Children's Contact With Print During Shared Reading: Longitudinal Effects on Literacy Achievement." Child Development83: 810–820. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467‐8624.2012.01754.x.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Pietikäinen, S., and A. Pitkänen‐Huhta. 2013. "Multimodal Literacy Practices in the Indigenous Sámi Classroom: Children Navigating in a Complex Multilingual Setting." Journal of Language, Identity & Education12, no. 4: 230–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2013.818471.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Pratt, S. M.2020. "A Mixed Methods Approach to Exploring the Relationship Between Beginning Readers' Dialog About Their Thinking and Ability to Self‐Correct Oral Reading." Reading Psychology41, no. 1: 1–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2019.1674434.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Ramsey, P.2015. Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World: Multicultural Education for Young Children. 4th ed. Teachers College Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Rohde, L.2015. "The Comprehensive Emergent Literacy Model: Early Literacy in Context." SAGE Open5, no. 1: 2158244015577664. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015577664.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Sénéchal, M., J.‐A. LeFevre, B. L. Smith‐Chant, and K. V. Colton. 2001. "On Refining Theoretical Models of Emergent Literacy: The Role of Empirical Evidence." Journal of School Psychology39, no. 5: 439–460. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022‐4405(01)00081‐4.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Serrano‐Villar, M., and E. J. Calzada. 2016. "Ethnic Identity: Evidence of Protective Effects for Young, Latino Children." Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology42: 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2015.11.002.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Shedd, M. K., and N. K. Duke. 2008. "The Power of Planning: Developing Effective Read‐Alouds." Young Children63, no. 6: 22–27.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Sheets, R. H.1999. "Human Development and Ethnic Identity." In Racial and Ethnic Identity in School Practices: Aspects of Human Development, edited by R. H. Sheets and E. R. Hollins, 91–101. Lawrence Erlbaum.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Spencer, M. B., and C. Markstrom‐Adams. 1990. "Identity Processes Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Children in America." Child Development61, no. 2: 290–310. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467‐8624.1990.tb02780.x.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Stake, R.1995. Case Study Research. Springer.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Street, B. V.2001. "Introduction." In Literacy and Development: Ethnographic Perspectives, edited by B. V. Street, 1–17. Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Sulzby, E.1985. "Children's Emergent Reading of Favorite Storybooks: A Developmental Study." Reading Research Quarterly20: 244–280.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Swartz, S. L., R. E. Shook, A. F. Klein, et al. 2003. Guided Reading & Literacy Centers. Dominie Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Wawire, B. A., G. N. Wawire, and F. Kiroro. 2025. "The Structural Relations of Component Reading Comprehension Skills in Kiswahili: The Influence of Socio‐Economic Status and Home Literacy Environment." Reading Research Quarterly60, no. 1: 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.593.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Weinberg, J., and S. Penfield. 2000. "Mohave Language Planning: Where Has It Been and Where Should It Go From Here? Coyote Papers, 11."https://<ulink href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/279440696">www.researchgate.net/publication/279440696</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Wu, C.‐C., and A. S. Honig. 2013. "Taiwanese Preschoolers' Emergent Reading Behaviours With an Unfamiliar Storybook." Early Child Development and Care183, no. 10: 1486–1507. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2013.788813.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Yeomans‐Maldonado, G., and C. Mesa. 2021. "The Association of the Home Literacy Environment and Parental Reading Beliefs With Oral Language Growth Trajectories of Spanish‐English Bilingual Children." Early Childhood Research Quarterly57: 271–284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2021.07.001.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Ching‐Ting Hsin; Catherine Compton‐Lilly and Di Tam Luu</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author; Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib36" firstref="ref2"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref3"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref4"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib42" firstref="ref7"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib52" firstref="ref8"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib55" firstref="ref9"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref12"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib38" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib40" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref16"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib50" firstref="ref17"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib54" firstref="ref18"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib34" firstref="ref21"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib35" firstref="ref22"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref25"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref26"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl19" bibid="bib37" firstref="ref27"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl20" bibid="bib47" firstref="ref28"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl21" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref31"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl22" bibid="bib45" firstref="ref32"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl23" bibid="bib51" firstref="ref36"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl24" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref37"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl25" bibid="bib43" firstref="ref38"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl26" bibid="bib29" firstref="ref39"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl27" bibid="bib30" firstref="ref40"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl28" bibid="bib27" firstref="ref43"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl29" bibid="bib32" firstref="ref44"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl30" bibid="bib31" firstref="ref46"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl31" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref48"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl32" bibid="bib33" firstref="ref58"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl33" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref64"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl34" bibid="bib53" firstref="ref65"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl35" bibid="bib39" firstref="ref72"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl36" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref73"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl37" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref75"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl38" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref76"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl39" bibid="bib49" firstref="ref79"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl40" bibid="bib41" firstref="ref83"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl41" bibid="bib46" firstref="ref84"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl42" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref89"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl43" bibid="bib44" firstref="ref90"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl44" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref101"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl45" bibid="bib48" firstref="ref102"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl46" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref109"></nolink>
Header DbId: eric
DbLabel: ERIC
An: EJ1503744
AccessLevel: 3
PubType: Academic Journal
PubTypeId: academicJournal
PreciseRelevancyScore: 0
IllustrationInfo
Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: The Intertwined Development of Atayal Oral Language, Emergent Reading and Identity among Indigenous Young Children in a Bilingual Book Project
– Name: Language
  Label: Language
  Group: Lang
  Data: English
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Ching-Ting+Hsin%22">Ching-Ting Hsin</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8880-2571">0000-0002-8880-2571</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Catherine+Compton-Lilly%22">Catherine Compton-Lilly</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2116-7374">0000-0002-2116-7374</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Di+Tam+Luu%22">Di Tam Luu</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6892-0810">0009-0001-6892-0810</externalLink>)
– Name: TitleSource
  Label: Source
  Group: Src
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Reading+Research+Quarterly%22"><i>Reading Research Quarterly</i></searchLink>. 2026 61(2).
– Name: Avail
  Label: Availability
  Group: Avail
  Data: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
– Name: PeerReviewed
  Label: Peer Reviewed
  Group: SrcInfo
  Data: Y
– Name: Pages
  Label: Page Count
  Group: Src
  Data: 18
– Name: DatePubCY
  Label: Publication Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2026
– Name: TypeDocument
  Label: Document Type
  Group: TypDoc
  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
– Name: Subject
  Label: Descriptors
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Foreign+Countries%22">Foreign Countries</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Indigenous+Populations%22">Indigenous Populations</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Oral+Language%22">Oral Language</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Beginning+Reading%22">Beginning Reading</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Preschool+Children%22">Preschool Children</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Self+Concept%22">Self Concept</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Bilingualism%22">Bilingualism</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Books%22">Books</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Malayo+Polynesian+Languages%22">Malayo Polynesian Languages</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cultural+Background%22">Cultural Background</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reading+Processes%22">Reading Processes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Printed+Materials%22">Printed Materials</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Pictorial+Stimuli%22">Pictorial Stimuli</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cues%22">Cues</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Memory%22">Memory</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Instructional+Materials%22">Instructional Materials</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Material+Development%22">Material Development</searchLink>
– Name: Subject
  Label: Geographic Terms
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Taiwan%22">Taiwan</searchLink>
– Name: DOI
  Label: DOI
  Group: ID
  Data: 10.1002/rrq.70097
– Name: ISSN
  Label: ISSN
  Group: ISSN
  Data: 0034-0553<br />1936-2722
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: This mixed-methods study explored the intertwined development of Atayal oral language, emergent reading-like behaviors, and cultural identity for 28 Indigenous preschoolers (average age 4.11 years) during a year-long book project. Eight early childhood and Atayal language teachers from two classrooms implemented bilingual books at two levels of difficulty. Each level was used for a semester. Pre-project, mid-project and post-project assessments related to oral language, emergent reading, and cultural identity were conducted; child interviews and observational field notes were collected. Quantitative (i.e., ANOVA with repeated measures, paired sample t-test, Pearson correlation) and qualitative analyses (i.e., coding of interview transcripts and field notes, identification/counting of reading-like behaviors) revealed significant improvement for Atayal oral language, emergent reading-like behaviors, and cultural identity after the first semester. However, further improvement on oral language and reading-like behaviors was not indicated, perhaps due to dissimilar sentence structures between level one and level two books. While this project enhanced children's attention to print and print concepts, most children continued to rely on picture cues and memory rather than phonetic cues. This study sheds light on developing and implementing materials to sustain Indigenous languages.
– Name: AbstractInfo
  Label: Abstractor
  Group: Ab
  Data: As Provided
– Name: DateEntry
  Label: Entry Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2026
– Name: AN
  Label: Accession Number
  Group: ID
  Data: EJ1503744
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ1503744
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1002/rrq.70097
    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 18
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Foreign Countries
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Indigenous Populations
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Oral Language
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Beginning Reading
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Preschool Children
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Self Concept
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Bilingualism
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Books
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Malayo Polynesian Languages
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Cultural Background
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reading Processes
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Printed Materials
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Pictorial Stimuli
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Cues
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Memory
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Instructional Materials
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Material Development
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Taiwan
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: The Intertwined Development of Atayal Oral Language, Emergent Reading and Identity among Indigenous Young Children in a Bilingual Book Project
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Ching-Ting Hsin
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Catherine Compton-Lilly
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Di Tam Luu
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 04
              Type: published
              Y: 2026
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 0034-0553
            – Type: issn-electronic
              Value: 1936-2722
          Numbering:
            – Type: volume
              Value: 61
            – Type: issue
              Value: 2
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Reading Research Quarterly
              Type: main
ResultId 1