This study investigated the impact of parents with different language backgrounds on the language acquisition and language competency of their children in the mother tongue, Chinese, and a second language, English, in Singapore. Parents were surveyed on language usage and language materials provided to their children. Exams on vocabulary, listening comprehension, story comprehension, translation, and verbal fluency were given to students in both English and Chinese in a preschool and a primary school that taught both languages. The findings showed that the respondent parents and students from both schools were at ease using the language in which they were most competent, and most parents in both schools purchased learning and reading materials in both English and Chinese. The language of the extra reading and learning materials bought or borrowed had hardly any impact on the scores of language tests. Only the language of the books read aloud to the children made a difference. As expected, children read to in Chinese scored better on the Chinese vocabulary and fluency tests; the converse was true for those read to in English. Results suggest that the extent of exposure to a language makes a difference to a child's competency in the language. (AP)