Maternal reports of home literacy experiences in multilingual Mauritius: a case study of pre-schoolers

While the extant literature has highlighted the important contribution of home literacy experiences to early literacy development, limited research has been carried out among children living in postcolonial contexts, where there is a mismatch between the home and school language. Such is the case of Mauritius. The present exploratory case study investigates the home literacy experiences of two groups of Mauritian pre-schoolers. Interviews with the children's mothers indicate that these children are immersed in home environments which value informational and educational reading materials, rather than pleasure reading materials. This preference for a skills orientation, rather than an entertainment approach, to early home literacy experiences is explained by the specificities of the local culture. The social and educational background of interviewed mothers, the gap between language of the home and language of literacy, and local reading and cultural practices all contribute to the didactic nature of the early home literacy experiences.