Home Language Differences in the English and Spanish Reading Development of Two-Way Immersion Students

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

Abstract

Purpose
This study is guided by the following research questions:
1. What are the average growth trajectories for TWI students’ English and Spanish reading ability in the domains of decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension?
2. Does home language exposure predict TWI students’ final status and rates of change in English and Spanish reading ability from grade 2 to 5?
Theoretical Framework
The development of skilled reading ability is a complex task, requiring mastery of both lower-order domains such as phonemic awareness and decoding as well as higher order domains such as vocabulary and comprehension (Scarborough, 2001; Snow & Kim, 2006). Among bilingual learners, the complexity of this task is magnified, and studies indicate that while these students are often able to perform on par with native speakers in small-space domains such as decoding, performance gaps in large-space domains such as vocabulary and comprehension persist (Mancilla-Martinez & Lesaux, 2011; Nakamoto, Lindsey, & Manis, 2007).
Methods
This study involved 185 students in four Spanish/English two-way immersion (TWI) programs. The students came from linguistically diverse homes, with 17% exposed solely to English, 12% exposed solely to Spanish, and 71% exposed to both languages to varying degrees.
A structural equation modeling (SEM) framework (Bollen, 1989) was used to estimate latent growth curve models. Once the best fitting unconditional model was identified for each construct, covariates were entered into the model to determine their effect on final status and rate of change.
Data Sources
Data for this study come from multiple sources and were collected by trained research assistants.
Results
RQ1:
The same general trend of quadratic growth with deceleration was noted for all three reading domains in both languages. In both languages, decoding demonstrated the highest estimated final status and fastest growth rate.
RQ2:
Home language exposure was not significantly associated with rate of change in any model, but it was significantly associated with final status in all models other than Spanish decoding. For all three English reading domains, greater home exposure to Spanish was associated with lower final English reading outcomes, with the biggest impact on vocabulary. In Spanish, there was no difference in decoding final status, but home language was significantly associated with final status in comprehension and vocabulary such that greater home exposure to English was associated with lower final Spanish reading outcomes. The largest impact was again on vocabulary.
Significance
This study replicates findings of quadratic growth with deceleration in the English and Spanish reading ability of bilingual learners (Mancilla-Martinez & Lesaux, 2011; Nakamoto, Lindsey, & Manis, 2007), noting that these trends also hold for students from English monolingual homes. It also replicates findings from these studies that while English learners make considerable gains in reading performance, they are not sufficient to close achievement gaps in the domains of vocabulary and comprehension. Here, this finding was broadened to Spanish vocabulary and comprehension outcomes, with similar achievement gaps for Spanish learners.

Authors

• Elizabeth R. Howard, University of Connecticut

• Graham Gilbert Rifenbark, University of Connecticut