193 - 206 頁 pp. 193 - 206
Heterogeneity Analysis of Language Learning Achievement and School Life of
Southeastern Asian Female Immigrants’ Children
Yi-Horng Lai
1,Fen-Fen Huang
1Hsieh-Hua Yang
1Abstract
Numbers of female immigrants from Southeast Asia came to Taiwan these years, and it mean more and more Southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children was born in Taiwan. Immigrants’ children were disadvantaged due to language, cultural and social interactional conflicts between home and school. This study focus on 451 new immigrants’ children in elementary school. The data would be analysis with growth mixture modeling for three years data. The language learning achievement of Southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children could be divided into three groups: high-level language learning achievement group (148 students), low-level language learning achievement group (24 students), and middle-level language learning achievement group (279 students). The quality of teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, and environmental perception of high-level language learning achievement group were decrease. Low-level language learning achievement group’s peer relationship and environmental perception were growth. The Southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children’s language learning achievement were, they were poor in improve teacher-student relationship with learning. Elementary school teachers should help Southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children improve teacher-student relationship. The high-level mathematics learning achievement students need the help of improve the peer relationship and environmental perception.
Keywords: immigrants’ children, language learning achievement, school life, growth mixture model
I. INTRODUCTION
More and more female immigrants from Southeast Asia came to Taiwan these years, and it mean more and more Southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children was born in Taiwan. Immigrants’ children are disadvantaged due to language, cultural and social interactional conflicts between home and school (Akar, 2010). Usually, students whose native language is different from the language that used for the instruction belong to the minority or immigrant groups that are economically disadvantaged compared to the other students (Mohammadpour, 2013). Immigrant parents who speak a foreign language often have less cultural capital to share with their children, weaker relationships with their
1 Department of Health Care Administration, Oriental Institute of Technology, Taiwan Correspondence author. Yi-Horng Lai
children's teachers and less understanding of school norms. Immigrants’ children often have weaker understanding of teachers' and classmates' expectations, which can limit their learning opportunities and yield less learning, compared to native children (Chiu & Chow, 2010).
Many studies pointed out that the learning achievement of new immigrants’ children were not as well as residents’ children, especial in language learning (Mohammadpour, 2013; Akar, 2010; Chiu & Chow, 2010; Ho, 2006; Ministry of Education, 2005). How to help immigrants’ Children improve the ability of language was an important topic for government.
Traditional data analysis only focused on the data in one time, and it is difficult to find the effect of factor change (or growth). Method of growth mixture modeling had emerged as a useful tool for the study of longitudinal change, and it was applied in many research topics (Stulla, Wiklundb, Galec, Capkun-Nigglid, Houghtona, & Jones, 2011). The purpose of this study was to investigate Southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children’s language learning achievement, teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, and environmental perception with latent growth mixture modeling for the effect of the change of school life in three years.
A. The Teacher-student Relationship
The teacher-student relationship is the interaction of teachers and students. The interaction of students and teachers is one of the important processes of children’s learning. The interaction of students and teachers is not only for learning, but also for the transpose of the values of life and learning attitude. Teachers should maintain an effective learning and efficient learning environment, and a good teacher-student relationship (Yang, Tsai, & Ho, 2013). Elementary schools, teachers, students, and parents or guardians can improve teacher-student relationships and communications with information system for improve students’ learning achievement (Chen, & Cheng, 2013). A close and intimate teacher-student relationship is helpful in school learning (Lai & Xue, 2012).
In Chiang’s study (2005), most tutors think new immigrants’ children are great, and are good in teacher-student relationship. Chen (2004) adopted purposive sampling to select 331 southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children from third-grade to six-grade in the academic year of 92, and find Asian female immigrants’ children are well in teacher-student relationship. Nurturing quality relationships between and among both teachers and peers may hold promise for enhancing learning (Shen, McCaughtry, Martin, Fahlmann, & Garn, 2012). Teachers’ attitude is helpful in the success of the students’ performance (Othman & Leng, 2011).
In Chin and Yu’s study (2008), the children of Southeast Asian immigrant mothers gained significantly lower scores for academic performance and teacher-student relationship than did the adolescents of native Taiwanese mothers. After interview four southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children, Chen (2005) point out that immigrants’ children are weak in teacher-student interaction.
B. The Peer Relationship
The socialization of children is not only dependent on the assist of parents, but only also peer group. Children can learn social skills, establishment of self-concept, and get a sense of security and comfort with the interaction of friends or classmates. In a school, students all come from different family, and their socioeconomic background, habits, and
concept are different. In the process of intricate interaction, secondary peer group be formed gradually. If the children adjustment well in the environment, it is helpful in socialization for children. If the children adjustment not well and conflict in the environment, it would become the obstacles on the children's school life.
Development quality relationships between and among both teachers and peers may hold promise for enhancing learning (Shen, McCaughtry, Martin, Fahlmann, & Garn, 2012). Peers’ understanding is helpful in the success of the students’ performance (Othman & Leng, 2011). Although the computer-assisted learning environment could help students to learn more quickly and conveniently, it is better for students to learn with peer relationship (Huang & Liu, 2012).
C. The Environmental Perception
The school is not only a place to learn knowledge, but also a life field and feeling share. The relationship of interaction is generated in this place. The atmosphere that children feel in the school effect children’s learning process and learning achievement strongly. Chen (2004) fined that Asian female immigrants’ children are well in environmental perception.
Summarize, the school life include children’s interaction with teachers and peer group in the learning environment. This study focus on the new immigrants’ children’s teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, and environmental perception.
II. MATERIALS AND METHOD
This study focused on the language learning achievement and the school life of Southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children. The research framework was as Figure 1. The school life included teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, and environmental perception.
Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of This Study
A. Research Data
The research data was obtained from Wu’s study (2010) in the Survey Research Data Archive (SRDA) that provided by the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. Wu’s study was finished at July 31, 2007, and built the database of “The transected and longitudinal study of the southeast Asian immigrant women’s parent-teacher interaction, children’s self-efficacy, and school life in Taiwan”. The research data in this study was part of this database.
The Wu’s research data (2010) was got from three highest degree of urbanization regions that high ration of the number of new immigrant women marriage accounted for the proportion of total marriages in 2003 in Taiwan: New
Language Learning Achievement (LLA) The School Life
-Teacher-student Relationship (TR) -Peer Relationship (PR)
Taipei City, Taoyuan County, and Taichung City, and the three lowest degree of urbanization regions that high ration of the number of new immigrant women marriage accounted for the proportion of total marriages in 2003 in Taiwan: Yunlin County, Pingtung County, and Penghu County. 150 southeastern Asian female immigrants that children study in primary school were sampled in these six areas. The number of residents was the same as the number new immigrants in each region. The data was got one time one year in three years from 2005 to 2007.
There were 1554 records that include 777 new immigrants’ records and 777 residents’ records in Wu’s study (2010). This study focus on 451 Southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children data that without missing value in 3-year language learning achievement. The missing value in these 451 records would be estimate by expectation-maximization (EM) with IBM SPSS 20.
The language learning achievement (LLA) in Wu’s study (2010) and this study was calculated with Equation 1. It was converted into the relative position of each subject’s rank in the class, and it could avoid the effect of class sizes on the rank. Size Class Rank 1 LLA (Equation 1) B. Research Tools
The school life included teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, and environmental perception (Wu, 2010). The questionnaire of school life was being built in Huang’s study (2005).
Items for the teacher-student relationship (TR) were as Table 1. There were 4 items for teacher-student relationship. The questionnaire was answered with 5 Likert scale for measuring the relationship of the interaction of teachers and students in campus. Teacher-student relationship was the attitude of interaction of teachers and students. The more scores mean the more positive attitude of teacher-student relationship.
Table 1. Items for The Teacher-student Relationship (TR)
Item Questionnaire TR01 I often get the teacher's praise.
TR02 I will take the initiative to help the teachers. TR03 I like to talk with teachers.
TR04 When teacher 0071uiz me, I would answer seriously.
Items for the peer relationship (PR) were as Table 2. There were 8 items for peer relationship. The questionnaire was answered with 5 Likert scale for measuring the relationship of the interaction of classmates and classmates in campus. Peer relationship was the attitude of interaction of students and students. The more scores mean the more positive attitude of peer relationship.
Table 2. Items for the Peer Relationship (PR)
Item Questionnaire PR01 I am willing to share everything with classmates.
PR02 When I’m in trouble, my classmates would help me. PR03 I would play with classmates.
PR04 It is funny that play with classmates.
PR05 It makes me happy that live together with classmates. PR06 The classmates would like let me join in play game. PR07 I would like to work together with classmates. PR08 Classmates would like to work together with me.
Items for the environmental perception (EP) were as Table 3. There were 9 items for environmental perception. The questionnaire was answered with 5 Likert scale for measuring the attitude of the feeling of environment. The more scores mean the more positive attitude of environmental perception.
Table 3. Items for the Environmental Perception (EP)
Item Questionnaire EP01 I like school.
EP02 I like go to school. EP03 I like learn new knowledge.
EP04 I think the teachers in the school are very good.
EP05 The teaching aids in subject classroom are helpful for my study. EP06 I think the teachers are fair in reward and punishment
EP08 I like study in subject classroom.
EP09 I like the play equipment and sports facilities in school.
The scale reliability of the questionnaire, mean, and standard deviation (S.D.) in this study was as Table 4. The Cronbach’s α of TR, PR, and EP all above .60, and they were good in internal consistency (Cortina, 1993).
Table 4. Scale Reliability of the Questionnaire in this Study
Scale N Mean S.D. Cronbach’s α The teacher-student relationship (TR) 4 2.47 .81 .68
The peer relationship (PR) 8 3.04 .77 .84 The environmental perception (EP) 9 3.00 .81 .76
C. Methodology of Data Analysis
The data analysis methodology in this study was combining the latent variable and time-oriented factors. The research data was tested the trend of average change in longitudinal study with growth curve model and average structure analysis. This study would focus on one variable that changed and growth with time (Duncan & Duncan, 1995; Willet, 1988). How the effect of research variables on the starting average and the direction of the trajectory of the target variable would be tested with the covariance analysis of growth curve model that include.
First, the relationship of initial state and the growth (or change) with time of language learning achievement would be tested with the intercept and slope of growth curve model of language learning achievement. Second, the effect of the teacher-student relationship, the peer relationship, and the environmental perception on language learning achievement would be tested with the growth curve model of language learning achievement.
The latent growth model in this study was as Figure 2. The data of language learning achievement were got in 3 years (one year one time) for building the latent variable of intercept and slope (ILA and SLA) of 3 time points of language learning achievement (LLA1, LLA2, and LLA3), and the trace of language learning achievement in 3 years can be shown with the ILA and SLA in Figure 2. The change rate and direction of language learning achievement can be tested with ILA and SLA.
For testing the effect of the teacher-student relationship (TR), the peer relationship (PR), and the environmental perception (EP) on language learning achievement in different time, they all be build the latent variable of initial state (ITR, IPR, and IEP) and the change (STR, SPR, and SEP) based on 3-year data (TR1, TR2, TR3, PR1, PR2, PR3, EP1, EP2, and EP3).
The data would be analysis with Mplus 7.0 and Stata 12.1. The fit situation of theoretical model and research would be shown with goodness of fit statistics, and the result would be shown with completely standardized solution.
Figure 2. The Latent Growth Model in This Study
ILA SLA
LLA1 LLA2 LLA3
TR1 TR2 TR3 PR1 PR2 PR3 EP1 EP2 EP3 ITR STR IPR SPR IEP SEP C
III. RESULTS
The data analysis methodology in this study was growth mixture modeling that combining the latent variable and time-oriented factors.
A. The Sample Summarize
The summarization of the research data in this study was as Table 4. There were 451 elementary school students in this study, and it included 171 male elementary school students (37.92%) and 185 female elementary school students (41.02%). About the nationality of the mother, 107 of them were Vietnam (23.73%), 234 of them were Indonesia (51.88%), 26 of them were Thailand (5.76%), 10 of them were Malaysia (2.22%), 29 of them were Philippines (6.43%), 42 of them were Myanmar (9.31), and the others were missing value in the nationality of the mother.
Table 5. Data Summarize
Variable Frequency Percent (%)
Gender Male 171 37.92
Female 185 41.02
Missing 95 21.06
The nationality of the mother Vietnam 107 23.73
Indonesia 234 51.88 Thailand 26 5.76 Malaysia 10 2.22 Philippines 29 6.43 Myanmar 42 9.31 Missing 3 .67
City New Taipei City 57 12.64
Taoyuan County 65 14.41 Taichung City 68 15.08 Yunlin County 106 23.50 Pingtung County 55 12.20 Penghu County 100 22.17 Total 451 100.00 B. Measurement Model
Table 6 presents factor loading and other metrics for the item measures as well as reliability and validity measures. Hair, Anderson, Tatham, and Black (1998) suggest that in a sample of 150 respondents. The result of relationship of the early (intercept) and the change (slope) was as table 6. The relationship of the beginning language learning achievement and the change of language learning achievement in these three years were not signifies.
The result of the effect of school life on language learning achievement was as Table 7. It could be found that the beginning of teacher-student relationship (ITR), peer relationship (IPR), and environmental perception (IEP) were effect on the beginning of the language learning achievement. The beginning of teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, and environmental perception play an important in language learning achievement.
Table 6. The Assessing of Measurement Model
Item F.L. S.E. t-value ILASLA <-.01 <.01 -.61 ITRILA .15 .10 1.46 IPRILA .14 .11 1.24 IEPILA .29* .14 2.13 ITRSLA .11 .88 .13 IPRSLA .44 3.16 .14 IEPSLA .58 4.38 -.13 STRSLA 1.16 7.99 .15 SPRSLA .76 4.80 -.16 SEPSLA -.16 1.42 -.12 ITRSTR .01 .02 .45 IPRSPR .03* .01 2.63 IEPSEP .01 .01 1.33 *: p-value<.05 C. Grouping
The entropy of two, three, four, five, and six were as Table 7, and the entropy of three groups were largest. Entropy level of 0.6 or higher is sufficiently good class separation. The data summarize of these three groups in three years was as Table 8.
Table 7. The Entropy of Groups
N of groups Entropy 2 .78 3 .80 4 .75 5 .77 6 .77
Table 8. Data Summarize of Three Groups in Three Years
Mean (S.E.)
Group N Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 1 148 .58 (.27) .59 (.26) .58 (.27) 2 24 .33 (.29) .38 (.30) .36 (.30) 3 279 .42 (.30) .43 (.29) .41 (.29)
With the figure of the language learning achievement curve of three groups in three years was as Figure 3, it could find that the language learning achievement of Group 1 was higher than other group. Group 2 was last one. So Group 1 was high-level language learning achievement group, Group 2 was low-level language learning achievement group, and
Group 3 was middle-level language learning achievement group. The estimate of the factors of language learning achievement of Group 1, Group 2, and Group3 were as Table 9, Table 10, and Table 11.
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Year
La
nguage
Learning Achie
vement
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3Figure 3. The Language Learning Achievement Curve of Three Groups in Three Years
1. Group 1: High-level Language Learning Achievement Group
The estimate of the factors of language learning achievement of Group 1 was as Table 9. The language learning achievement of this group was best in these three groups. The initial value of teacher-student relationship (ITR), peer relationship (IPR), and environmental perception (IEP) were 2.88, 3.47, and 3.33, and it could be find that they all large than other group (See Table 10 and Table 11). The change (or growth) of teacher-student relationship (STR), peer relationship (SPR), and environmental perception (SEP) were negative. The quality of teacher-student relationship, the quality of peer relationship, and the feeling of environmental perception were decrease in this group
Table 9. The Estimate of Group 1
Estimate S.E. t-value ITR 2.88* .05 62.53 STR -.31* .04 -7.99 IPR 3.47* .04 87.44 SPR -.15* .03 -4.73 IEP 3.33* .04 86.00 SEP -.16* .03 -5.20 *: p-value<.05
2. Group 2: Low-level Language Learning Achievement Group
The estimate of the factors of language learning achievement of Group 2 was as Table 10. The language learning achievement of this group was weak in these three groups. The initial value of teacher-student relationship (ITR), peer
relationship (IPR), and environmental perception (IEP) were 1.64, 1.86, and 2.06, and it could be find that they all smaller than other group (See Table 9 and Table 11). The change (or growth) of peer relationship (SPR) and environmental perception (SEP) were positive, and the quality of peer relationship was increase in this group.
Table 10. The Estimate of Group 2
Estimate S.E. t-value ITR 1.64* .11 15.60 STR .08 .07 1.11 IPR 1.86* .10 19.34 SPR .48* .08 6.16 IEP 2.06* .09 23.57 SEP 0.29* .08 3.81 *: p-value<.05
3. Group 3: Middle-level Language Learning Achievement Group
The estimate of the factors of language learning achievement of Group 3 was as Table 11. The language learning achievement of this group was between Group1 and Group2. The initial value of teacher-student relationship (ITR), peer relationship (IPR), and environmental perception (IEP) were 2.26, 2.87, and 2.89, and it could be find that they were all between Group1 and Group2 (See Table 9 and Table 10). The teacher-student relationship (STR) was positive, and it mean the quality of teacher-student relationship was increase in this group.
Table 11. The Estimate of Group 3
Estimate S.E. t-value ITR 2.26* .03 65.82 STR -.13* .03 -4.77 IPR 2.87* .03 104.58 SPR < -.01 .02 -.14 IEP 2.89* .03 106.38 SEP .02 .02 .74 *: p-value<.05
IV. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The language learning achievement of Southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children could be divided into three groups: high-level language learning achievement group, low-level language learning achievement group, and middle-level language learning achievement group. The quality of teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, and environmental perception of high-level language learning achievement group were higher than other groups, and low-level language learning achievement group were last one.
The quality of teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, and environmental perception of high-level language learning achievement group were decrease. These Southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children already did a good
job in language learning, but they were in a bottleneck situation in teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, and environmental perception. Elementary school teachers should pay attention to their school life, and help them improve the quality of teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, and environmental perception. The quality of peer relationship and environmental perception were growth for low-level language learning achievement group. For the middle-level language learning achievement group, their quality of teacher-student relationship was decrease.
After all, it could be find that no matter how the Southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children’s language learning achievement were, they were poor in improve teacher-student relationship with learning. Elementary school teachers should help Southeastern Asian female immigrants’ children improve teacher-student relationship. The high-level language learning achievement students need the help of improve the peer relationship and environmental perception.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study is based in part on data from the Survey Research Data Archive (SRDA) provided by the Academia Sinica. The interpretation and conclusions contained herein do not represent those of Survey Research Data Archive (SRDA) or Academia Sinica.
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