Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-cphqk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-07T06:07:34.912Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The measure matters: Language dominance profiles across measures in Spanish–English bilingual children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2012

LISA M. BEDORE ,
ELIZABETH D. PEÑA ,
CONNIE L. SUMMERS ,
KARIN M. BOERGER ,
MARIA D. RESENDIZ ,
KAI GREENE ,
THOMAS M. BOHMAN  and
RONALD B. GILLAM
LISA M. BEDORE*
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Austin
ELIZABETH D. PEÑA
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Austin
CONNIE L. SUMMERS
Affiliation:
The University of Texas El Paso
KARIN M. BOERGER
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Austin
MARIA D. RESENDIZ
Affiliation:
Texas State University San Marcos
KAI GREENE
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Austin
THOMAS M. BOHMAN
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Austin
RONALD B. GILLAM
Affiliation:
Utah State University
*
Address for correspondence: Lisa M. Bedore, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, 1 University Station A1100, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, 512-232-5101, USA[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if different language measures resulted in the same classifications of language dominance and proficiency for a group of bilingual pre-kindergarteners and kindergarteners. Data were analyzed for 1029 Spanish–English bilingual pre-kindergarteners who spanned the full range of bilingual language proficiency. Parent questionnaires were used to quantify age of first exposure and current language use. Scores from a short test of semantic and morphosyntactic development in Spanish and English were used to quantify children's performance. Some children who were in the functionally monolingual range based on interview data demonstrated minimal knowledge of their other languages when tested. Current use accounted for more of the variance in language dominance than did age of first exposure. Results indicate that at different levels of language exposure children differed in their performance on semantic and morphosyntax tasks. These patterns suggest that it may be difficult to compare the results of studies that employ different measures of language dominance and proficiency. Current use is likely to be a useful metric of bilingual development that can be used to build a comprehensive picture of child bilingualism.

Keywords

language proficiencydominancesemanticssyntaxage of acquisitionlanguage ability
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , July 2012 , pp. 616 - 629
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This work was supported by the grant 1 R01 DC007439-01 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). We thank Dr. Li and the three anonymous reviewers for their comments on this manuscript. We are grateful to the families that participated in the study. We would also like to thank Anita Méndez Pérez and Chad Bingham for their assistance with coordination of data collection, the interviewers for their assistance with collecting the data for this project, and the school districts for allowing us access to collect the data. This report does not necessarily reflect the views or policy of NIDCD.

References

Alvarado, C. G., Ruef, M. L., & Schrank, F. A. (2005). Woodcock–Muñoz Language Survey – Revised. Itasca, IL: Riverside.Google Scholar
Bedore, L. M., & Leonard, L. B. (2001). Grammatical morphology deficits in Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 44, 905–924.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bedore, L. M., Peña, E. D., Gillam, R. B., & Ho, T. (2010). Language sample measures and language ability in Spanish English bilingual kindergarteners. Journal of Communication Disorders, 43 (6), 498–510.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bedore, L. M., Peña, E. D., Joyner, D., & Macken, C. (2011). Parent and teacher rating of language proficiency and concern. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 14 (5), 489–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E., Luk, G., Peets, K. F., & Yang, S. (2010). Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13 (4), 525–531.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., & Viswanathan, M. (2009). Components of executive control with advantages for bilingual children in two cultures. Cognition, 112 (3), 494–500.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bohman, T., Bedore, L. M., Peña, E. D., Méndez-Pérez, A., & Gillam, R. B. (2010). What you hear and what you say: Language performance in Spanish English bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13 (3), 325–344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bunta, F., Fabiano-Smith, L., Goldstein, B., & Ingram, D. (2009). Phonological whole-word measures in 3-year-old bilingual children and their age-matched monolingual peers. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 23 (2), 156–175.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, S. M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2008). Bilingual experience and executive functioning in young children. Developmental Science, 11 (2), 282–298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caselli, M. C., Casadio, P., & Bates, E. (1999). A comparison of the transition from first words to gramar in English and Italian. Journal of Child Language, 26, 69–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, E. F., Amori, B. A., Ballard, W. S., & Tighe, P. L. (1991). The IDEA Oral Language Proficiency Tests. Brea, CA: Ballard & Tighe.Google Scholar
DeAvila, A., & Duncan, S. E. (1990). Language Assessment Scales oral technical report. Monterey, CA: Macmillan–McGraw–Hill.Google Scholar
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1981). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – Revised. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1997). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – Third Edition. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Dunn, A. L., & Fox Tree, J. E. (2009). A quick, gradient Bilingual Dominance Scale. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12 (3), 273–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, L. M., Padilla, R., Lugo, S., & Dunn, L. M. (1986). Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes Peabody. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Fey, P. (2001, April). Of mushrooms, igloos and the Woodcock–Muñoz Language Survey – Spanish (LSS), Subtests I and II. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, WA.Google Scholar
Fishman, J., & Cooper, R. L. (1969). Alternative measures of bilingualism. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 8, 276–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García, S. B., Pérez, A., & Ortiz, A. (2000). Mexican American mothers’ beliefs about disabilities. Remedial and Special Education, 21 (2), 90–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, V. C. M., & Thomas, E. M. (2009). Bilingual first-language development: Dominant language takeover, threatened minority language take-up. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12 (2), 213–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gollan, T. H., Weissberger, G. H., Runnqvist, E., Montoya, R. I., & Cera, C. (in press). Self-ratings of spoken language dominance: A Multilingual Naming Test (MINT) and preliminary norms for young and aging Spanish–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, doi:10.1017/S1366728911000332. Published by Cambridge University Press, August 1, 2011.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1998). Studying bilinguals: Methodological and conceptual issues. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 131–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingual life and reality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F., & Kreiter, J. (2003). Understanding child bilingual acquisition using parent and teacher reports. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24 (2), 267–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hakansson, G., Salameh, E.-K., & Nettelbladt, U. (2003). Measuring language development in bilingual children: Swedish–Arabic children with and without language impairment. Linguistics, 41 (2), 255–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammer, C. S., Komaroff, E., Rodriguez, B., Lopez, L., Scarpino, S., & Goldstein, B. G. (in press). Predicting Spanish–English bilingual children's language abilities. Journal of Speech, Langauge, and Hearing Research, doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2012/11-0016). Published by American Speech–Language–Hearing Association, January 31, 2012.Google Scholar
Hammer, C. S., Lawrence, F. R., & Miccio, A. W. (2008). Exposure to English before and after entry to Head Start: Bilingual children's receptive language growth in Spanish and English. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 11 (1), 30–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ionin, T., Zubizarreta, M. L., & Philippov, V. (2009). Acquisition of article semantics by child and adult L2-English learners. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12 (3), 337–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson-Maldonado, D., Thal, D. J., Marchman, V., Newton, T., Fenson, L., & Conboy, B. (2003). El Inventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas: User's guide and technical manual [MacArthur Foundation: Communicative Development Inventory]. Baltimore, MD: P. H. Brookes.Google Scholar
Jacobson, P. F., & Schwartz, R. G. (2002). Morphology in incipient bilingual Spanish-speaking preschool children with specific language impairment. Applied Psycholinguistics, 23 (1), 23–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jia, G., Aaronson, D., & Wu, Y. H. (2002). Long-term language attainment of bilingual immigrants: Predictive factors and language group differences. Applied Psycholinguistics, 23, 599–621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jia, G., Kohnert, K., Collado, J., & Aquino-Garcia, F. (2006). Action naming in Spanish and English by sequential bilingual children and adolescents. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49 (3), 588–602.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jorshchick, L., Quick, A. E., Glässer, D., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M. (2011). German–English-speaking children's mixed NPs with ‘correct’ agreement. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14 (2), 173–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kan, P. F., & Kohnert, K. (2005). Preschoolers learning Hmong and English: Lexical-semantic skills in L1 and L2. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48 (2), 372–383.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kan, P. F., & Kohnert, K. (2008). Fast mapping by bilingual preschool children. Journal of Child Language, 35 (3), 495–514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohnert, K., & Bates, E. (2002). Balancing bilinguals II: Lexical compehension and cogitive processing in children learning Spanish and English. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 45, 347–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohnert, K., Bates, E., & Hernández, A. E. (1999). Balancing bilinguals: Lexical-semantic production and cognitive processing in children learning English and Spanish. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Reseach, 42, 1400–1413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohnert, K., & Danahy, K. (2007). Young L2 learners’ performance on a novel morpheme task. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 21 (7), 557–569.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, P. (2009). Lexical organization and competition in first and second languages: Computational and neural mechanisms. Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 33 (4), 629–664.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, P., Sepanski, S., & Zhao, X. (2006). Language history questionnaire: A Web-based interface for bilingual research. Behavior Research Methods, 38 (2), 202–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacSwan, J., & Rolstad, K. (2006). How language proficiency tests mislead us about ability: Implications for English language learner placement in special education. Teachers College Record, 108 (11), 2304–2328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marchman, V. A., & Martinez-Sussman, C. (2002). Concurrent validity of caregivier/parent report measures of language for children who are learning both English and Spanish. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 45, 983–997.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin-Rhee, M. M., & Bialystok, E. (2008). The development of two types of inhibitory control in monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11 (1), 81–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S. (2009). Reexamining the fundamental difference hypothesis: What can early bilinguals tell us? Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31 (2), 225–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oller, D. K., & Eilers, R. E. (eds.) (2002). Language and literacy in bilingual children. Buffalo, NY: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paradis, J. (2010). Bilingual children's acquisition of English verb morphology: Effects of language exposure, structure complexity, and task type. Language Learning, 60 (3), 651–680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paradis, J., Crago, M., Genesee, F., & Rice, M. (2003). French–English bilingual children with SLI: How do they compare with their monolingual peers? Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46 (1), 113–127.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patterson, J. L. (1999). What bilingual toddlers hear and say: Language input and word combinations. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 21 (1), 32–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peña, E. D., Bedore, L. M., & Zlatic-Guinta, R. (2002). Category-generation performance of bilingual children: The influence of condition, category, and language. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 45, 938–947.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peña, E. D., Gillam, R. B., Bedore, L. M., & Bohman, T. M. (2011). Risk for poor performance on a language screening measure for bilingual preschoolers and kindergarteners. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20 (4), 302–314.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pérez-Leroux, A. T., Pirvulescu, M., & Roberge, Y. (2009). Bilingualism as a window into the language faculty: The acquisition of objects in French-speaking children in bilingual and monolingual contexts. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12 (1), 97–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pray, L. (2005). How well do commonly used language instruments measure English oral language proficiency? Bilingual Research Journal, 29 (2), 387–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prewitt Diaz, J. O. (1988). Assessment of Puerto Rican children in bilingual education programs in the United States: A critique of Lloyd M. Dunn's monograph. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 10 (3), 237–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Restrepo, M. A. (1998). Identifiers of predominantly Spanish-speaking children with language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 41 (6), 1398–1411.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reyes, I., & Hernández, A. E. (2006). Sentence interpretation strategies in emergent bilingual children and adults. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 9 (1), 51–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roseberry, C. A., & Connell, P. J. (1991). The use of an invented language rule in the differentiation of normal and language-impaired Spanish-speaking children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 34 (3), 596–603.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Serratrice, L. (2007). Cross-linguistic influence in the interpretation of anaphoric and cataphoric pronouns in English–Italian bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10 (3), 225–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serratrice, L., Sorace, A., Filiaci, F., & Baldo, M. (2009). Bilingual children's sensitivity to specificity and genericity: Evidence from metalinguistic awareness. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12 (2), 239–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheng, L., McGregor, K. K., & Marian, V. (2006). Lexical-semantic organization in bilingual children: Evidence from a repeated word association task. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49 (3), 572–587.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simón-Cereijido, G., & Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F. (2009). A cross-linguistic and bilingual evaluation of the interdependence between lexical and grammatical domains. Applied Psycholinguistics, 30 (2), 315–337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Summers, C., Bohman, T., Gillam, R. B., Peña, E. D., & Bedore, L. M. (2010). Bilingual performance on nonword repetition in Spanish and English. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 45 (4), 480–493.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thal, D. J., Bates, E., Goodman, J., & Jahn-Samilo, J. (1997). Continuity of language abilities: An exploratory study of late- and early-talking toddlers. Developmental Neuropsychology, 13 (3), 239–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thal, D. J., Jackson-Maldonado, D., & Acosta, D. (2000). Validity of a parent-report measure of vocabulary and grammar for Spanish-speaking toddlers. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 43, 1087–1100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uccelli, P., & Páez, M. M. (2007). Narrative and vocabulary development of bilingual children from kindergarten to first grade: Developmental changes and associations among English and Spanish skills. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 38 (3), 225–236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Umbel, V., Pearson, B. Z., Fernández, M. C., & Oller, D. K. (1992). Measuring bilingual children's receptive vocabularies. Child Development, 63, 1012–1020.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vagh, S. B., Pan, B. A., & Mancilla-Martinez, J. (2009). Measuring growth in bilingual and monolingual children's English productive vocabulary development: The utility of combining parent and teacher report. Child Development, 80 (5), 1545–1563.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Veii, K., & Everatt, J. (2005). Predictors of reading among Herero–English bilingual Namibian school children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 8 (3), 239–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verhoeven, L. (2007). Early bilingualism, language transfer, and phonological awareness. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28 (3), 425–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windsor, J., & Kohnert, K. (2004). The search for common ground: Part 1. Lexical performance by linguisitcally diverse learners. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 47, 877–890.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windsor, J., Kohnert, K., Loxtercamp, A. L., & Kan, P. F. (2008). Performance on nonlinguistic visual tasks by children with language impairment. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29 (2), 237–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodcock, R. W., Muñoz-Sandoval, A. F., Ruef, M. L., & Alvarado, C. G. (2005). Woodcock language proficiency battery – Revised. Itasca, IL: Riverside.Google Scholar
World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment Consortium Consortium. (2007). English language proficiency standards and Resource Guide, Pre-Kindergarten–Grade 12. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Center for Education Research.Google Scholar
Yan, S., & Nicoladis, E. (2009). Finding le mot juste: Differences between bilingual and monolingual children's lexical access in comprehension and production. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12 (3), 323–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yip, V., & Matthews, S. (2006). Assessing language dominance in bilingual acquisition: A case for mean length utterance differentials. Language Assessment Quarterly, 3 (2), 97–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar