Arabic-English bilingual children’s early home literacy environments and parental language policies

The paper describes the role parental language ideology and the home literacy environment play in heritage language (HL) literacy learning of bilingual Arabic-English-speaking children in the UK. Information about the under-reported literacy practices of Arabic-English-speaking families will enhance current knowledge about HL literacy practices within the home. Data were collected over a period of 12 months in the form of language background surveys, audio recordings of activities within the home and parental interviews. The analysis of data suggests that parents’ HL ideologies are the impetus for language practices that develop children’s literacy skills in Arabic and the motivation to create a literacy environment within the home. The families made small libraries, invested (much) time in learning the unique skills needed to master an additional orthographic system and sent their children to Arabic weekend schools. The most significant factor, however, in determining HL literacy development was mothers’ HL proficiency. The main challenges were the diglossic nature of Arabic and difficulty in locating and affording Arabic literacy material that ensure systematic development of HL literacy skills

Mothers’ accounts of attending to educational and everyday needs of their children at home during covid-19: The case of the UAE

From March 2020 until July 2020, the UAE implemented mandatory distance learning due to COVID-19, which meant that children had to continue their learning remotely at home. Though schools concerted exemplary efforts to ensure that children received all that was necessary through advanced technology platforms and interfaces, the duty of ensuring that children continued to engage in successful learning fell solely on parents. This paper is based on a self-report study conducted during this first period of distance learning where parents were invited to anonymously complete a survey and then be interviewed. The paper relies on interviews as its main data source. Interview transcripts once transcribed were thematically analysed. One recurring theme in the data was gender differences in domestic and other duties as well as attending to the educational needs of children. Mothers, irrespective of cultural or educational background, disproportionately seemed to be the caretakers of the home and of children’s educational needs. Mothers spoke of their mental health concerns, pressures of time management, and negative effects on their own work. This paper makes an original contribution by exploring parental experiences of emergency remote learning and what these reflect about parental ethnotheories in the UAE

Heritage language learners of English: Linguistic gaps and cognitive strengths

Purpose: This study examined whether Heritage Language Learners (HLLs) of English display profile effects in their performance on knowledge- and processing-dependent measures relative to the standardised mean scores of monolingual speakers. The study also investigated the influence of several experiential factors on HLL performance. Method: Participants were 59 Arabic-speaking HLLs from six to nine years old. The children completed a battery of linguistic tests in their L1 and L2, as well as cognitive measures of short-term and working memory and non-verbal intelligence. Result: Significantly lower standardised scores were observed for HLLs as compared to the standardised mean scores on all Arabic/English language tasks except L2 word reading. HLLs scored at or above age-level expectations on cognitive measures except the Arabic nonword repetition task. Stepwise regression analyses examining variance in HLLs\u27 performance, age and richness of environment consistently explained HLLs\u27 performance in L1 Arabic, but different factors accounted for HLLs\u27 performance in English depending on the task. Age was the only variable that consistently explained variance in performance on the cognitive measures. Conclusion: The results suggest that processing-dependent measures may be less sensitive to difference in language experience than traditional knowledge-based measures such as standardised measures of language and vocabulary

Global Retinoblastoma Presentation and Analysis by National Income Level

Importance: Early diagnosis of retinoblastoma, the most common intraocular cancer, can save both a child's life and vision. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that many children across the world are diagnosed late. To our knowledge, the clinical presentation of retinoblastoma has never been assessed on a global scale. Objectives: To report the retinoblastoma stage at diagnosis in patients across the world during a single year, to investigate associations between clinical variables and national income level, and to investigate risk factors for advanced disease at diagnosis. Design, Setting, and Participants: A total of 278 retinoblastoma treatment centers were recruited from June 2017 through December 2018 to participate in a cross-sectional analysis of treatment-naive patients with retinoblastoma who were diagnosed in 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures: Age at presentation, proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, and tumor stage and metastasis. Results: The cohort included 4351 new patients from 153 countries; the median age at diagnosis was 30.5 (interquartile range, 18.3-45.9) months, and 1976 patients (45.4) were female. Most patients (n = 3685 84.7%) were from low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). Globally, the most common indication for referral was leukocoria (n = 2638 62.8%), followed by strabismus (n = 429 10.2%) and proptosis (n = 309 7.4%). Patients from high-income countries (HICs) were diagnosed at a median age of 14.1 months, with 656 of 666 (98.5%) patients having intraocular retinoblastoma and 2 (0.3%) having metastasis. Patients from low-income countries were diagnosed at a median age of 30.5 months, with 256 of 521 (49.1%) having extraocular retinoblastoma and 94 of 498 (18.9%) having metastasis. Lower national income level was associated with older presentation age, higher proportion of locally advanced disease and distant metastasis, and smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma. Advanced disease at diagnosis was more common in LMICs even after adjusting for age (odds ratio for low-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 17.92 95% CI, 12.94-24.80, and for lower-middle-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 5.74 95% CI, 4.30-7.68). Conclusions and Relevance: This study is estimated to have included more than half of all new retinoblastoma cases worldwide in 2017. Children from LMICs, where the main global retinoblastoma burden lies, presented at an older age with more advanced disease and demonstrated a smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, likely because many do not reach a childbearing age. Given that retinoblastoma is curable, these data are concerning and mandate intervention at national and international levels. Further studies are needed to investigate factors, other than age at presentation, that may be associated with advanced disease in LMICs. © 2020 American Medical Association. All rights reserved

‘Ba-SKY-aP with her each day at dinner’: technology as supporter in the learning and management of home languages

The paper describes the transformational role technology plays in the management and transmission of heritage (minority) languages (HL) in two UK-based multilingual families. Data were collected in the form of a language background survey, parental interviews, and recordings of interactional events within the home. Findings suggest that parents use technology as a language management tool within the home domain to transmit their HL through enhancing HL language practices and creating rich HL linguistic environments, which both support and seem to contradict parents’ declared language beliefs. Technology allows Family members from across the world to frequently partake in everyday multilingual talk thereby strengthening HL learning and use. Interestingly, the support parents feel technology offers them in transmitting the HL reduces their own anxiety over their children’s HL development whilst also unexpectedly relaxing their attitudes towards fears of (over)consumption of technology. Equally, technology appears to support children to consciously develop overt bilingual identities that they previously did not (openly) profess. The data supports the notion of technology as semiotic practice emphasising that with strategic parental support and agency from children, technology can transform the home into a hub where the learning and maintenance of the HL is advocated in multiple unprecedented ways

Arabic Heritage Schools as Sites of Multilingualism and Positive Identity Building in the UK

This chapter describes the role heritage schools play in the transmission of Arabic. Heritage language schools are often misunderstood as enclaves of isolation from society or as centres in which a parallel reality is taught. Findings from two projects in the UK suggest that school leaders and parents want to support children’s heritage “need” and offer them an opportunity to embrace their background as a way to form strong identities thereby also becoming effective members of the UK society. School leaders work closely with local authority bodies and their respective local communities through invitations to the schools and training of their staff to the highest levels to ensure safeguarding as well as advanced teaching and classroom management skills. Parents view these schools as more than educational spaces and also as “links to Arabic and Arab culture”; some parents move homes to be near these schools, whilst others volunteer as a “way to support” such centres. Students report that these schools act to support their bilingual identities and normalise the use of Arabic outside their homes. They also view Arabic not only as a language that connects them to their religion and culture but also as an asset that will open international and employment doors for them in the future

Potential of using host plant resistance, nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers for reduction of Aspergillus flavus colonization and aflatoxin accumulation in maize in Tanzania

Aflatoxin contamination (AC) in maize, caused by the fungal pathogen Aspergillus flavus(Link), starts at pre-harvest stage. Hence, interventions that reduce entry and development of A. flavus in the field are required. Trials were carried out at Seatondale and Igeri, to evaluate the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer combinations, hereafter referred to as fertilizers, on A. flavus and AC in maize kernels. The main treatments were four combinations of N and P fertilizers (60 or 120 kg Nha−1 with 15 or 30 kg Pha−1) and sub-treatments were of six popular maize hybrids. Plants at 50% silking were inoculated with the fungus through the silk channels. Grains from inoculated and control ears were analysed for AC using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay, and pathogen content quantified by Quantitative Polymerase Chain reaction. Higher AC (mean 6.51 μg kg−1) occurred at Seatondale than Igeri (mean 0.45 μg kg−1), probably due to low temperatures (8–23 °C) at Igeri. Fertilizers didn't cause significant differences in neither pathogen colonization nor AC at both sites. However, mean A. flavusaccumulation, as measured by pathogen host DNA ratio, was thrice (0.16) as high in sub-optimal fertilizer conditions compared to optimal fertilizer rate (0.05). All hybrids were susceptible to A. flavus and AC, though a difference in AC was noted among the hybrids at both sites. PAN 691 showed the highest AC (14.68 μg kg−1), whereas UHS 5210 had the lowest AC (1.87 μg kg−1). The susceptibility varied among the hybrids and was mostly associated with ear droopiness, husk tightness, days to 50% silking, 50% pollen shed, Anthesis to silking interval, diseased ears, insect damaged ears, kernel texture, dry matter, grain filling, ear height, kernel ash content and kernel moisture content. At Seatondale, A. flavus accumulation was positively correlated with aflatoxin (r = 0.606), and both A. flavus accumulation and AC were positively correlated with diseased ears. Selection and growing of less susceptible varieties under optimal fertilizer regime offer ideal strategy for sustainable reduction of A. flavus and aflatoxin contamination in maize at pre-harvest