Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:43:27.545Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Characterization of English and Spanish language proficiency among middle school English learners with reading difficulties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2022

Kelly T. Macdonald Open the ORCID record for Kelly T. Macdonald [Opens in a new window] ,
David J. Francis ,
Arturo E. Hernandez ,
Anny P. Castilla-Earls  and
Paul T. Cirino
Kelly T. Macdonald*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas
David J. Francis
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas
Arturo E. Hernandez
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas
Anny P. Castilla-Earls
Affiliation:
Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, Texas
Paul T. Cirino
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas
*
Address for correspondence: Kelly Macdonald, M.A. University of Houston, Department of Psychology Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics (TIMES) Health 1 Building 4849 Calhoun, Room 477 Houston, TX 77204 E-mail: kmacdonald@uh.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Among bilinguals, language-related variables such as first and second language proficiency and balance may be related to important cognitive and academic outcomes, but approaches to characterizing these variables are inconsistent, particularly among at-risk samples of children. The current study employed comprehensive language assessment of English and Spanish language skills and contrasted various approaches to the characterization of language among at-risk ELs in middle school (N = 161). Specifically, we contrasted variable-centered and person-centered approaches, and convergence between objective and self-report measures. Findings support a two-factor structure of English and Spanish language skills in this population, three profiles of students (balanced, moderately unbalanced-higher Spanish, and very unbalanced-higher English), convergence between variable-centered and person-centered approaches, and mixed support for subjective indices of usage. Results provide a foundation from which to examine the roles of L1 and L2 proficiency as well as balance in important cognitive and academic outcomes in this at-risk and understudied population.

Keywords

English learnersbalanced bilingualismlanguageproficiency
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 25 , Issue 5 , November 2022 , pp. 899 - 912
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (2013) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5®). American Psychiatric Pub.Google Scholar
Anderson, JA, Mak, L, Chahi, AK and Bialystok, E (2018) The language and social background questionnaire: Assessing degree of bilingualism in a diverse population. Behavior Research Methods 50, 250–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archila-Suerte, P, Woods, EA, Chiarello, C and Hernandez, AE (2018) Neuroanatomical profiles of bilingual children. Developmental Science 21, e12654.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Balfanz, R, Herzog, L and Mac Iver, DJ (2007) Preventing student disengagement and keeping students on the graduation path in urban middle-grades schools: Early identification and effective interventions. Educational Psychologist 42, 223–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandeen-Roche, K, Miglioretti, DL, Zeger, SL and Rathouz, PJ (1997) Latent variable regression for multiple discrete outcomes. Journal of the American Statistical Association 92(440), 1375–1386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, E and Goodman, JC (1999) On the emergence of grammar from the lexicon. In MacWhinney, B (Ed.), The emergence of language. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, pp. 29–79.Google Scholar
Bedore, LM, Peña, ED, Summers, CL, Boerger, KM, Resendiz, MD, Greene, K, Bohman, TM and Gillam, RB (2012) The measure matters: Language dominance profiles across measures in Spanish–English bilingual children Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 15, 616–629.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E, Craik, FI and Ruocco, AC (2006) Dual-modality monitoring in a classification task: The effects of bilingualism and ageing. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 59, 1968–1983.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, L and Lahey, M (1978) Language development and language disorders John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Google Scholar
Bradley, RH and Corwyn, RF (2002) Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual Review of Psychology 53, 371–399.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Branum-Martin, L, Mehta, PD, Fletcher, JM, Carlson, CD, Ortiz, A, Carlo, M and Francis, DJ (2006) Bilingual phonological awareness: Multilevel construct validation among Spanish-speaking kindergarteners in transitional bilingual education classrooms. Journal of Educational Psychology 98, 170–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capin, P, Miciak, J, Steinle, P, Hamilton, B, Fall, AM, Roberts, G, Fletcher, J and Vaughn, S (2022) The effects of an extensive intervention for bilingual Latinx students with reading difficulties in middle school. [Manuscript in preparation]. Department of Special Education, The University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
Castilla, AP, Restrepo, MA and Perez-Leroux, AT (2009) Individual differences and language interdependence: A study of sequential bilingual development in Spanish–English preschool children. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 12(5), 565–580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foorman, BR, Koon, S, Petscher, Y, Mitchell, A and Truckenmiller, A (2015) Examining general and specific factors in the dimensionality of oral language and reading in 4th–10th grades. Journal of Educational Psychology 107, 884–899.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Francis, DJ, Rivera, M, Lesaux, N, Kieffer, M and Rivera, H (2006) Practical guidelines for the education of English language learners: Research-based recommendations for instruction and academic interventions. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.Google Scholar
Gollan, TH, Weissberger, GH, Runnqvist, E, Montoya, RI and Cera, CM (2012) 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 15, 594–615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, EB. J. C (1997) On the inseparability of grammar and the lexicon: Evidence from acquisition, aphasia and real-time processing. Language and Cognitive Processes 12, 507–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottardo, A (2002) The relationship between language and reading skills in bilingual Spanish-English speakers. Topics in language disorders 22(5), 46–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottardo, A and Mueller, J (2009) Are first-and second-language factors related in predicting second-language reading comprehension? A study of Spanish-speaking children acquiring English as a second language from first to second grade. Journal of Educational Psychology 101, 330–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halle, T, Hair, E, Wandner, L, McNamara, M and Chien, N (2012) Predictors and outcomes of early versus later English language proficiency among English language learners. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 27, 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammer, CS, Jia, G and Uchikoshi, Y (2011) Language and literacy development of dual language learners growing up in the United States: A call for research. Child Development Perspectives 5, 4–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, SA, Logan, JA, Thompson, L, Kovas, Y, McLoughlin, G and Petrill, SA (2016) A latent profile analysis of math achievement, numerosity, and math anxiety in twins. Journal of educational psychology 108, 181–193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hernandez, AE and Li, P (2007) Age of acquisition: its neural and computational mechanisms. Psychological Bulletin 133, 638.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoff, E (2013) Interpreting the early language trajectories of children from low-SES and language minority homes: implications for closing achievement gaps. Developmental Psychology 49, 4–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kass, RE and Raftery, AE (1995) Bayes factors. Journal of the American Statistical Association 90, 773–795.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kieffer, MJ (2008) Catching up or falling behind? Initial English proficiency, concentrated poverty, and the reading growth of language minority learners in the United States. Journal of Educational Psychology 100(4), 851.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khalaf, S, Santi, KL, Kulesz, PA, Bunta, F and Francis, DJ (2019) Bilingual phonological awareness: Construct validation in Grade 1 Spanish-speaking English learners. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development 2019, 79–110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, DH, Lambert, RG and Burts, DC (2018) Are young dual language learners homogeneous? Identifying subgroups using latent class analysis. The Journal of Educational Research 111, 43–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LARRC (Language and Reading Research Consortium), Yeomans-Maldonado, G, Bengochea, A and Mesa, C (2018) The dimensionality of oral language in kindergarten Spanish–English dual language learners. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 61, 2779–2795. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-L-17-0320Google ScholarPubMed
Lee Salvatierra, J and Rosselli, M (2011) The effect of bilingualism and age on inhibitory control. International Journal of Bilingualism 15, 26–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, P, Sepanski, S and Zhao, X (2006) Language history questionnaire: A web-based interface for bilingual research. Behavior research methods 38, 202–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, P, Zhang, FAN, Tsai, E and Puls, B (2014) Language history questionnaire (LHQ 2.0): A new dynamic web-based research tool. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 17(3), 673–680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lonigan, CJ, Goodrich, JM and Farver, JM (2018) Identifying differences in early literacy skills across subgroups of language-minority children: A latent profile analysis. Developmental psychology 54, 631–647.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lonigan, CJ and Milburn, TF (2017) Identifying the dimensionality of oral language skills of children with typical development in preschool through fifth grade. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 60, 2185–2198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lucero, A (2015) Cross-linguistic lexical, grammatical, and discourse performance on oral narrative retells among young Spanish speakers. Child Development 86(5), 1419–1433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacCallum, RC and Austin, JT (2000) Applications of structural equation modeling in psychological research. Annual review of psychology 51, 201–226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacWhinney, B (2008) A unified model. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.Google Scholar
Marian, V, Blumenfeld, HK and Kaushanskaya, M (2007) The Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q): Assessing language profiles in bilinguals and multilinguals. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 50, 940–967.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marsh, HW, Lüdtke, O, Trautwein, U and Morin, AJ (2009) Classical latent profile analysis of academic self-concept dimensions: Synergy of person-and variable-centered approaches to theoretical models of self-concept. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal 16, 191–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, NA (2013) Receptive one-word picture vocabulary test: Spanish-bilingual edition (4th ed.). Novato, CA: Therapy Publications.Google Scholar
Martin, NA and Brownell, R (2011) Receptive one-word picture vocabulary test (4th ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed, Inc.Google Scholar
Meeusen, C, Meuleman, B, Abts, K and Bergh, R (2018) Comparing a variable-centered and a person-centered approach to the structure of prejudice. Social Psychological and Personality Science 9, 645–655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mueller, RO and Hancock, GR (2008) Best practices in structural equation modeling. Best practices in quantitative methods 488–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muñoz-Sandoval, AF, Woodcock, RW, McGrew, KS and Mather, N (2007) Batería III: Woodcock- Muñoz: Pruebas de Aprovechamiento. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing.Google Scholar
Muthén, LK and Muthén, BO (2012) Mplus statistical modeling software: Release 7.0. Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.Google Scholar
National Center for Educational Statistics (2003) National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2003, Reading Assessments. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.Google Scholar
Nylund, KL, Asparouhov, T and Muthén, BO (2007) Deciding on the number of classes in latent class analysis and growth mixture modeling: A Monte Carlo simulation study. Structural equation modeling: A multidisciplinary Journal 14, 535–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortman, JM and Shin, HB (2011, August). Language projections: 2010 to 2020. In American Sociological Association Annual Meeting.Google Scholar
Passel, JS, Cohn, DV and Lopez, MH (2011) Hispanics account for more than half of nation's growth in past decade. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, 1-7.Google Scholar
Pérez-Leroux, AT, Castilla-Earls, AP and Brunner, J (2012) General and specific effects of lexicon in grammar: Determiner and object pronoun omissions in child Spanish. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 55, 313–327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pinker, S (1998) Words and rules. Lingua 106, 219–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosselli, M, Ardila, A, Lalwani, LN and Vélez-Uribe, I (2016) The effect of language proficiency on executive functions in balanced and unbalanced Spanish–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 19, 489–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandhofer, C and Uchikoshi, Y (2013) Cognitive consequences of dual language learning: Cognitive function, language and literacy, science and mathematics, and social-emotional development. L. Espinosa (Ed.), California's best practices for teaching young dual language learners: Research overview papers. Sacramento, CA: California Department of Education.Google Scholar
Satorra, A and Bentler, PM (2001) A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis. Psychometrika 66(4), 507–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunders, WM and Marcelletti, DJ (2013) The gap that can't go away: The catch-22 of reclassification in monitoring the progress of English learners. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 35, 139–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schumacker, RE and Lomax, RG (2004)A beginner's guide to structural equation modeling. Psychology Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Semel, EM, Wiig, EH, Secord, W and Langdon, HW (2006)CELF 4: Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals 4: Spanish Edition. PsychCorp.Google Scholar
Sheng, L, Lu, Y and Gollan, TH (2014) Assessing language dominance in Mandarin–English bilinguals: Convergence and divergence between subjective and objective measures. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 17, 364–383.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simon-Cereijido, G and Gutiérrez-Clellen, VF (2009) A cross-linguistic and bilingual evaluation of the interdependence between lexical and grammatical domains. Applied Psycholinguistics 30, 315–337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simon-Cereijido, G and Méndez, LI (2018) Using language-specific and bilingual measures to explore lexical–grammatical links in young latino dual-language learners. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 49, 537–550.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snijders, TA and Bosker, RJ (2011) Multilevel analysis: An introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modeling. Sage.Google Scholar
Tomblin, JB and Zhang, X (2006) The dimensionality of language ability in school-age children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 49, 1193–1208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaughn, KA and Hernandez, AE (2018) Becoming a balanced, proficient bilingual: Predictions from age of acquisition & genetic background. Journal of neurolinguistics 46, 69–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vega, C and Fernandez, M (2011) Errors on the WCST correlate with language proficiency scores in Spanish–English bilingual children. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 26, 158–164.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
White, LJ and Greenfield, DB (2017) Executive functioning in Spanish-and English-speaking Head Start preschoolers. Developmental Science 20, e12502.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wiig, EH, Secord, WA and Semel, E (2013)Clinical evaluation of language fundamentals: CELF-5. Pearson.Google Scholar
Woodcock, RW, McGrew, KS, Mather, N and Schrank, FA (2007) Woodcock-Johnson normative update tests of cognitive abilities. Rolling Meadows, IL: Riverside.Google Scholar
Yow, WQ and Li, X (2015) Balanced bilingualism and early age of second language acquisition as the underlying mechanisms of a bilingual executive control advantage: why variations in bilingual experiences matter. Frontiers in Psychology 6, 164.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed