Early skills that predict English reading ability: A longitudinal study of bilingual children from 5 to 10 years.

Despite substantial research, the contribution of oral language skills acquired in Spanish to Spanish-English bilingual children's acquisition of English reading skill is unclear. The current study addressed this question with data on the oral language and pre-literacy skills of 101 Spanish-English bilingual learners at 5 years of age and their English word reading (i.e., decoding) and reading comprehension skills at 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 years. Separate multilevel models using English language, Spanish language, and pre-literacy skills as predictors of these outcomes identified English phonological awareness, Spanish phonological awareness, and concepts of print knowledge as positive predictors of word reading. A final model including all these significant predictors found only Spanish phonological awareness and concept of print to be significant predictors. Significant predictors of reading comprehension in separate models were English vocabulary, Spanish phonological awareness, and concepts about print. In the final model, only English vocabulary and Spanish phonological awareness predicted English reading comprehension. These findings provide evidence that phonological awareness is a language-general skill that supports reading across languages, consistent with the common underlying proficiency model of bilingual reading development. The finding that only English vocabulary predicts English reading comprehension suggests that vocabulary knowledge is not part of a common underlying proficiency but is language specific in its value to reading ability.

Bilingual Children's Vocabulary Skills at 5 Years Predict Reading Comprehension Development Within, Not Across, Languages.

Extensive evidence indicates that early vocabulary skills predict later reading development among monolingually developing children. Some evidence suggests that a relationship between vocabulary and later reading also holds across languages among children whose home language differs from the school language. However, these findings have been mixed and it remains unclear if, and under what circumstances, vocabulary in one language supports reading comprehension development in another. The present study followed 84 Spanish-English bilingual children, assessing their vocabulary skills at 5 years and their reading comprehension at 6, 7, 8, and 9 years. Longitudinal multilevel models revealed significant within-language relations between early vocabulary knowledge and subsequent reading comprehension in both English and Spanish and no across-language relations. There were significant concurrent across-language relations between English and Spanish reading comprehension skills. These findings suggest that the contribution of vocabulary knowledge to reading comprehension is language specific but that there are also language general components to reading comprehension, which result in significant concurrent relations between reading comprehension skill across languages.

Commonalities, differences, and differences that matter between monolingual and bilingual development.

This commentary makes the argument that the child-internal and child-external sources of individual differences in bilingual development are much the same as the sources of individual differences in monolingual development. It makes the further argument that the operation of the child-external influences results in differences between monolingual and bilingual development in the rate and sometimes in the outcome of language acquisition. An argument is made for the scientific and practical value of understanding the differences between monolingual and bilingual development, and future directions for research are suggested.

Filling lexical gaps and more: code-switching for the power of expression by young bilinguals.

In this preregistered, longitudinal study of early code-switching, 34 US-born, Spanish-English bilingual children were recorded with a bilingual family member at 2;6 and 3;6, in Spanish-designated and English-designated interactions. Children's Spanish and English expressive vocabulary and their exposure to code-switching were measured through direct assessment and caregiver report. The children code-switched most frequently at speaker changes; within-turn and within-utterance codeswitching were rare. By 3;6, switches to English were significantly more frequent than switches to Spanish. At both ages, Spanish proficiency was a negative predictor of the frequency of switching to English, but children's degree of English dominance uniquely explained additional variance. Thus, children appear to code-switch not merely to fill gaps in their weaker language but to maximize their expressive power. Neither individual differences in exposure to code-switching nor in the interlocutors' language proficiency were consistently related to the children's rate of code-switching.

Bilingual Development in the Receptive and Expressive Domains: They Differ.

In bilingual children, more so than in monolingual children, comprehension abilities exceed production abilities. While this receptive-expressive gap in bilinguals has been well documented, little is known about its development. The present study tracked growth in the Spanish and English receptive and expressive vocabularies of 52 bilingual children from 4.5 to 10 years. The children's English vocabularies grew faster than their Spanish vocabularies, more so in the expressive domain than the receptive domain. The proportion of children who were English-dominant also increased more in the expressive than the receptive domain. By age 10, the children's expressive skills were almost always English dominant while their receptive skills were most frequently balanced. Among children who hear a heritage language at home and a societal language at school, trajectories of dual language development differs in the expressive and receptive domains. These longitudinal data suggest continuity between the receptive-expressive gap observed in bilingual children and the receptive bilingualism often observed in adults.

Majority language skill, not measures of bilingualism, predicts executive attention in bilingual children.

Evidence is mixed regarding whether and why bilingual children might be advantaged in the development of executive functions. Five preregistered hypotheses regarding sources of a bilingual advantage were tested with data from 102 Spanish-English bilingual children and 25 English monolingual children who were administered a test of executive attention, the flanker task, at 7, 8, and 9 years of age. Measures of the children's early and concurrent bilingual exposure and their concurrent English and Spanish skill were available from a larger longitudinal study in which these children participated. Tests of the preregistered hypotheses yielded null findings: The bilingual children's executive attention abilities were unrelated to their amount of early exposure to mixed input, to balance in their early dual language exposure, to balance in their concurrent exposure, to their degree of bilingualism, or to their combined Spanish + English vocabulary score. English vocabulary score was a positive significant correlate of executive attention among the bilingual children, but those bilingual children above the group median in English vocabulary did not outperform the monolingual children when the comparison was adjusted for nonverbal IQ. These findings suggest that a language learning ability may explain the association between bilingualism and executive function. Because the best statistical approach to testing for effects on differences is a matter of dispute, all analyses were conducted with both a difference score and a residual gain score as the outcome variable. The central findings, but not all findings, were the same with both approaches.

Why bilingual development is not easy.

All normal children in normal environments acquire language. However, all normal children in normal bilingual environments do not acquire two languages. This chapter asks what makes the simultaneous acquisition of two languages more difficult than the acquisition of one. Focusing on children in immigrant families whose two languages are a minority language used more at home and a majority, societal language, this chapter describes common patterns and individual differences in bilingual development. The most frequently occurring outcome in that circumstance is strong skill in the majority language with more varied and weaker skills in the minority language. This chapter also reviews research that identifies factors that contribute to individual differences in order to identify the experiences and abilities that support bilingual development. Those factors include the quality and quantity of children's exposure to each language, children's use of each language, and the functional value of proficiency in each language. We conclude that two languages are more difficult to acquire than one because language acquisition requires substantial and continued environmental support. It is not easy for children to acquire strong and comparable skills levels in two languages because environments tend not to provide high and comparable levels of support for two languages.

Profiles of Minority-Majority Language Proficiency in 5-Year-Olds.

Children from language minority homes reach school age with variable dual language skills. Cluster analysis identified four bilingual profiles among 126 U.S.-born, 5-year-old Spanish-English bilinguals. The profiles differed on two dimensions: language balance and total language knowledge. Balance varied primarily as a function of indicators of the relative quantity and the quality of their language exposure (amount of home exposure and maternal education in each language). Total language knowledge varied primarily as a function of indicators of children's language learning ability (phonological memory and nonverbal intelligence). English dominance was more prevalent than balanced bilingualism; there was no Spanish dominant profile, despite average Spanish dominance in home language use. There was no evidence of a tradeoff between English and Spanish skills.

Language exposure outside the home becomes more English-dominant from 30 to 60 months for children from Spanish-speaking homes in the United States.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to document the out-of-home exposure to English and Spanish experienced by children from Spanish-speaking homes in the United States during the preschool years. Methodology: Primary caregivers of 149 children from Spanish-speaking homes in South Florida reported on their children's language exposure. Data and analysis: Descriptive statistics and paired-samples t-tests described and compared children's exposure to English and Spanish outside the home. Multi-level modeling described trajectories of change and the influence of family characteristics on English and Spanish out-of-home exposure. Findings: Children heard more English than Spanish outside of their homes. Grandparents were the primary out-of-home source of exposure to Spanish. Language exposure in preschool and extracurricular activities was primarily English. From 30 to 60 months, English exposure increased, while Spanish exposure decreased. Within this general pattern, there was variability in children's out-of-home language exposure as a function of parents' language backgrounds and maternal education. Originality: Studies of bilingual children's language exposure have focused on home language use. The present study shows that out-of-home experiences are a significant source of exposure to societal language (SL) for children from language minority homes. Implications: For children in immigrant families, the home and family members outside the home are the primary sources of heritage language exposure. Out-of-home language experience is SL-dominant and increasingly so as children get older, although the degree to which this is the case differs depending on parental characteristics.

A multidimensional approach to Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers' narrative skills.

We identify language and discourse skills in 54-month-old Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers and their English-speaking monolingual peers, using multiple measures. Forty-one Spanish-English bilingual and 25 English monolingual children, all US born, viewed an eight-minute wordless video. The bilingual children recounted the story once in English and once in Spanish, in counterbalanced order. The story retellings were transcribed and coded for discourse skills (narrative length, narrative components and uses of evaluative language) and language skills (number of words, number of different words, MLUw). No difference was found in the two groups overall language or discourse skills, assessed in the narrative production, with the exception of certain uses of evaluative language. Within the bilingual group, all measures, except MLUw, were highly correlated across the two languages. Our multidimensional analysis of narrative structure and use of evaluative language sheds light on certain differences between the ways in which English monolinguals and Spanish-English bilinguals organize their narrative discourse. We discuss the advantages of using this multidimensional approach in assessing bilinguals language and discourse abilities in narrative production.

RESUMENExploramos las habilidades lingüísticas y discursivas de preescolares bilingües (español/inglés) de 54 meses de edad y de sus pares monolingües (inglés), utilizando múltiples medidas. Un total de 41 niños bilingües y 25 monolingües, todos nacidos en los Estados Unidos, produjeron narraciones basadas en un video sin palabras de ocho minutos. Los niños bilingües tenían que relatar la historia del vídeo, una vez en inglés y una en español. Se compensó el orden de presentación. Después se transcribieron y se codificaron sus narrativas en función de las habilidades discursivas (extensión de la narración, componentes narrativos y uso de lenguaje evaluativo) y lingüísticas (número total de palabras, número de palabras distintas, así como la longitud media de los enunciados en palabras o LME). No se observaron diferencias entre los dos grupos en términos de las habilidades lingüísticas o discursivas reflejadas en la producción narrativa, con la excepción de ciertos usos del lenguaje evaluativo. En el grupo bilingüe, todas las medidas, excepto la LME, se correlacionaban en los dos idiomas. Nuestro análisis multidimensional de la estructura narrativa y el uso de lenguaje evaluativo arroja luz sobre ciertas diferencias en el modo en que los niños monolingües y los bilingües organizan el discurso narrativo. Discutimos las ventajas que ofrece un enfoque multidimensional para un análisis detallado de las habilidades lingüísticas y discursivas en la producción narrativa de niños bilingües.

Explaining Individual Differences in Trajectories of Simultaneous Bilingual Development: Contributions of Child and Environmental Factors.

Effects of child and environmental factors in moderating the course of bilingual development were investigated using longitudinal data, from age 2.5 to 5 years, on 126 U.S.-born children with early exposure to Spanish and English. Multilevel models of Spanish and English expressive vocabulary identified children's phonological memory ability as a significant predictor of both outcomes, while also replicating the effect of the relative amount of language exposure. In addition, nonverbal IQ was a significant predictor of English vocabulary; birth order and maternal education in Spanish were significant predictors of Spanish vocabulary. These findings expand our understanding of the sources of the wide heterogeneity in bilingual development and of the requirements that language acquisition makes of learners and their environments.

Cultural differences in the content of child talk: evaluative lexis of English monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual 30-month-olds.

We examined the size, content, and use of evaluative lexis by 26 English monolingual and 20 Spanish-English bilingual 30-month-old children in interaction with their mothers. We extracted the evaluative words, defined as words referring to cognition, volition, or emotion. Controlling for overall vocabulary skills as measured by the MacArthur-Bates inventories, monolinguals had a larger evaluative lexicon than the bilinguals' Spanish evaluative lexicon, but no difference was found between monolinguals' and bilinguals' English evaluative lexicons. There were differences between the monolinguals and bilinguals in the distribution of evaluative words across semantic categories: English monolingual children used more words pertaining to volition and cognition and talked more about volition than the Spanish-English bilingual children. These results suggest that the development of evaluative lexicons is influenced by cultural differences, and consequently, bilingual children, who are also bicultural, follow a different developmental path in both languages from the path followed by their monolingual peers.

Home language and societal language skills in second-generation bilingual adults.

Aims: Research aims were (a) to test competing predictions regarding the levels of heritage and societal language proficiency among young adults who experienced early exposure to both languages, and (b) to identify sources of individual differences in degree of bilingualism. Design/methodology/approach: Participants comprised 65 Spanish-English bilinguals who reported using both languages on a weekly basis, 25 native English monolinguals, and 25 native Spanish monolinguals. Language and literacy skills were assessed with a battery of standardized and research-based assessments. Degree of bilingualism was calculated for the bilingual participants. Data and analysis: Paired sample t-tests compared the bilinguals' skills in English to their skills in Spanish. Hierarchical regression evaluated factors related to their degree of bilingualism. Independent sample t-tests compared bilinguals' single-language skills to monolinguals. Findings/conclusions: The bilinguals' English skills were stronger than their Spanish skills on every measure. Thus, degree of bilingualism was largely a function of level of Spanish skill and was associated with concurrent Spanish exposure. Bilinguals' English skills were not different from the monolinguals except in speed of lexical access. The bilinguals' Spanish skills were significantly lower than the Spanish monolinguals on every measure except in accuracy judgments for grammatically correct sentences. Originality: Previous studies of bilingual adults have focused on sequential bilinguals and previous studies of heritage language speakers have focused on their grammatical skills. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to assess a wide range of functionally relevant skills in adults with early exposure to a heritage and societal language. Significance/implications: These findings demonstrate that early exposure to and continued use of a home language does not interfere with the achievement of societal language and literacy skills, while also demonstrating that even a widely and frequently used home language may not be acquired to the same skill level as a societal language used in school.

The quality of child-directed speech depends on the speaker's language proficiency.

Many children learn language, in part, from the speech of non-native speakers who vary in their language proficiency. To investigate the influence of speaker proficiency on the quality of child-directed speech, 29 mothers who were native English speakers and 31 mothers who were native speakers of Spanish and who reported speaking English to their children on a regular basis were recorded interacting with their two-year-old children in English. Of the non-native speakers, 21 described their English proficiency as 'good', and eight described their English proficiency as 'limited'. ANCOVAs, controlling for differences in maternal education and child language level, revealed significant effects of group on lexical and grammatical properties of child-directed speech that the literature has identified as positive predictors of child language development. These results suggest that the child-directed speech of native speakers and non-native speakers with good proficiency provide a richer database for language acquisition than the child-directed speech of speakers with limited proficiency.

Do parents provide a helping hand to vocabulary development in bilingual children?

Monolingual children identify referents uniquely in gesture before they do so with words, and parents translate these gestures into words. Children benefit from these translations, acquiring the words that their parents translated earlier than the ones that are not translated. Are bilingual children as likely as monolingual children to identify referents uniquely in gesture; and do parental translations have the same positive impact on the vocabulary development of bilingual children? Our results showed that the bilingual children - dominant in English or in Spanish - were as likely as monolingual children to identify referents uniquely in gesture. More importantly, the unique gestures, when translated into words by the parents, were as likely to enter bilingual and monolingual children's speech - independent of language dominance. Our results suggest that parental response to child gesture plays as crucial of a role in the vocabulary development of bilingual children as it does in monolingual children.

Language Matters: Denying the Existence of the 30-Million-Word Gap Has Serious Consequences.

Sperry, Sperry, and Miller (2018) aim to debunk what is called the 30-million-word gap by claiming that children from lower income households hear more speech than Hart and Risley () reported. We address why the 30-million-word gap should not be abandoned, and the importance of retaining focus on the vital ingredient to language learning-quality speech directed to children rather than overheard speech, the focus of Sperry et al.'s argument. Three issues are addressed: Whether there is a language gap; the characteristics of speech that promote language development; and the importance of language in school achievement. There are serious risks to claims that low-income children, on average, hear sufficient, high-quality language relative to peers from higher income homes.

Bilingual Development in Children of Immigrant Families.

Early exposure to two languages is widely thought to guarantee successful bilingual development. Contradicting that belief, children in bilingual immigrant families who grow up hearing a heritage language and a majority language from birth often reach school age with low levels of skill in both languages. This outcome cannot be explained fully by influences of socioeconomic status. In this article, I summarize research that helps explain the trajectories of observed dual language growth among children in immigrant families in terms of the amount and quality of their language exposure as well as their own language use.

ADVANCES IN THE ASSESSMENT OF YOUNG BILINGUALS: COMMENTS ON FLOCCIA ET AL.

In this article, we comment on the significant contributions to science and to clinical practice made by Floccia et al.'s study of over 400 bilingual 2-year-old children. To science, this work contributes new findings on the linguistic factors that make some pairs of languages easier to learn than others and rich data on the environmental factors that influence bilingual development. Their results provide clues to the nature of the language learning process. To clinical practice, Floccia et al. contribute a new instrument for the diagnosis of risk for language impairment in bilingual children and a new method for the development of assessment instruments more generally. The experience-adjusted approach to norming that they illustrate here provides an example for others to follow. Their method holds promise for test development in many domains where the goal is to assess children's internal capacity but the evidence that is available in children's achievement is systematically influenced by environmental factors.

What explains the correlation between growth in vocabulary and grammar? New evidence from latent change score analyses of simultaneous bilingual development.

A close relationship between children's vocabulary size and the grammatical complexity of their speech is well attested but not well understood. The present study used latent change score modeling to examine the dynamic relationships between vocabulary and grammar growth within and across languages in longitudinal data from 90 simultaneous Spanish-English bilingual children who were assessed at 6-month intervals between 30 and 48 months. Slopes of vocabulary and grammar growth were strongly correlated within each language and showed moderate or nonsignificant relationships across languages. There was no evidence that vocabulary level predicted subsequent grammar growth or that the level of grammatical development predicted subsequent vocabulary growth. We propose that a common influence of properties of input on vocabulary and grammatical development is the source of their correlated but uncoupled growth. An unanticipated across-language finding was a negative relationship between level of English skill and subsequent Spanish growth. We propose that the cultural context of Spanish-English bilingualism in the US is the reason that strong English skills jeopardize Spanish language growth, while Spanish skills do not affect English growth. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/qEHSQ0yRre0.

Language Use Contributes to Expressive Language Growth: Evidence From Bilingual Children.

The unique relation of language use (i.e., output) to language growth was investigated for forty-seven 30-month-old Spanish-English bilingual children (27 girls, 20 boys) whose choices of which language to speak resulted in their levels of English output differing from their levels of English input. English expressive vocabularies and receptive language skills were assessed at 30, 36, and 42 months. Longitudinal multilevel modeling indicated an effect of output on expressive vocabulary growth only. The finding that output specifically benefits the development of expressive language skill has implications for understanding effects of language use on language skill in monolingual and bilingual development, and potentially, for understanding consequences of cultural differences in how much children are expected to talk in conversation with adults.