Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Extra-curricular activities (EAs) have become a billion-dollar industry in Asia, and many parents in Singapore enroll their children in enrichment classes to improve English and mother tongue language performance. Despite the heavy investment, it remains unclear how much children could benefit from such exposure. The present study examines this issue with 123 English–Mandarin bilingual children aged four to five. The number of hours children spent in language-related EAs, together with a set of internal factors (e.g., nonverbal intelligence) and external factors (e.g., home input), were used to predict children’s receptive vocabulary and word-reading skills in both languages using path models. Results show that 36% of the children attended English or Mandarin enrichment classes. Participation in English enrichment classes was not significantly associated with children’s English receptive vocabulary or English word-reading skills. In contrast, Mandarin enrichment classes were significantly associated with better Mandarin word-reading performance. The differential effects of enrichment classes may reflect the bilingual context of Singapore, where English dominates daily communication while Mandarin is mainly learned as a subject in preschool and receives relatively limited exposure outside school. The findings highlight the importance of considering sociolinguistic context when evaluating the effectiveness of language enrichment programs.
Source: Education Sciences
Authors: He Sun, Qiujuan Cheng, Clarence Green
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,172
Award: G6285282624
OpenAlex ID: W7154721867