Language Exposure and Language Proficiency: English-Spanish Bilinguals in Dual-Language Immersion Programs

• In Event: Language and Literacy Development: Immersion Education in the United States and Canada

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to document the language input, language output, age of language exposure, and language proficiencies of English-Spanish emergent bilingual kindergarteners attending a dual language immersion program. Specifically, we examine the relationship between language experience and measures of language ability (as measured by vocabulary, morphosyntax, and word recognition) in both English and Spanish.

Perspectives: Emergent bilinguals experience more variability in their input and output than monolinguals. Much attention has been given to usage-based and constructivist theories of language acquisition and how the amount and nature of input influence language learning especially for bilinguals (e.g. Paradis, 2010). However, how we systematically describe and quantify bilingual language proficiency and dominance has long been debated. Some have used age of first exposure to the language (e.g. Kan & Kohnert, 2008), while others have asked parents how frequent the two languages are used (e.g. Bedore et al., 2012, Branum-Martin, Mehta, Carlson, Francis & Goldenberg, 2014).

Methods: Data was collected from 38 English-Spanish kindergarteners attending a Spanish-English dual language immersion program. Average mother’s education was 17.4 years. Parents were interviewed on home language environment, as well as information on first exposure to English and Spanish and current language use. All children were exposed to English at birth with one child being exposed to English at the age of three. Majority of children were exposed to Spanish before the age of three, with seven children being exposed to Spanish for the first time in kindergarten. Current language use was calculated by asking parents an hour-by-hour account of their child’s language input and output for each of the child’s waking hours for a typical weekday and weekend (Bedore et al., 2012). Children’s language proficiency was measured in both English and Spanish using the Woodcock Johnson picture vocabulary and letter word identification subtests, and researcher created measures of morphosyntax.

Results: Results show that the emergent bilinguals spanned a full range of bilingual experience in regard to exposure and current use of their two languages. Results also show that this sample of children were English-dominant in vocabulary and morphosyntax, but Spanish-dominant in word reading. This may be due to the fact that the language of instruction at school was in Spanish for majority of the day, yet their exposure to Spanish was in a country where English is the societal language.

Results using hierarchical regression analysis show that current use was the most informative indicator of bilingual language proficiency. English exposure explained 28.8% of the variance in English expressive vocabulary, F(1,36) = 14.59, p =.0005, and 15% of the variance in English morphological awareness, F(1,34) = 5.98, p=.0198. Spanish exposure explained 21% of the variance in Spanish expressive vocabulary, F(1,36) = 9.58, p =.0038, and 20% of the variance in Spanish morphological awareness, F(1,32) = 8.01, p=.0080. Age of first exposure was less predictive than current use.

Significance: Findings suggest that, for emerging bilinguals, estimates of current use may be an important tool to measure bilingual dominance. Policy and instructional implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Yuuko Uchikoshi, University of California - Davis

• Lu Yang, University of California - Davis

• Mayu Lindblad, University of California Davis

• Chelsea Escalante

• Lina Reznicek-Parrado

• Ioulia Kovelman, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Fumiko Hoeft, University of California - San Francisco