Conceptual and Total Vocabulary of Dual Language Learners: Score Comparison and Prediction of Reading Comprehension

• In Event: Toward an Asset-Oriented Approach in Exploring Vocabulary Performance Among Dual Language Learners in the United States

Abstract

Objectives: Conceptually-scored vocabulary assessments (i.e., giving credit for labeling a concept regardless of the language) offer a promising alternative to monolingual measures for understanding dual language learners’ word knowledge (Mancilla-Martinez, Greenfader, & Ochoa, 2018; Munsrud et al., 2019). This study therefore examined total and conceptual vocabulary knowledge of elementary-age bilinguals, focusing on the utility for predicting English reading comprehension of children from Spanish-speaking homes.

Theoretical framework: Research with young children suggests that receptive and expressive vocabulary assessments that utilize total scoring—giving students credit for knowing multiple words or labels for the same concept across languages—are potentially more promising for understanding bilinguals’ vocabulary knowledge than those that utilize conceptual scoring (Core, Hoff, Rumiche, & Señor, 2013). To investigate whether this holds true for elementary-aged students, comparing conceptual and total scoring of receptive and expressive vocabulary measures to understand dual language learners’ vocabulary knowledge is essential.

Data sources: Our participants (N = 59) were children from Spanish-speaking homes in second (n = 33) and fourth (n = 25) grade from three elementary schools in an urban school district in the Southeastern region of the U.S. To measure students' conceptual and total vocabulary knowledge, we administered the Receptive and Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test-4: Spanish-Bilingual Edition (Martin, 2013a; 2013b) using two approaches: standard administration protocol that utilizes conceptual scoring, and extended administration protocol that allows total vocabulary scoring. The Measures of Academic Progress Growth Reading scores administered by each school were used to measure English reading comprehension.

Methods: To examine the patterns of language choices in students' responses, an item analysis was first conducted to index the language of a child's response in each administration approach: both Spanish and English, Spanish-only, English-only, and neither. We then examined the relationship between the conceptual and total vocabulary scores and ran multiple regression models to examine the predictive roles of the score types on students’ English reading comprehension.

Results: Total vocabulary administration allowed students to demonstrate significantly more lexical knowledge than conceptual administration (Table 1), with the former expectedly drawing more correct responses from students. Regression models (Table 2) showed that total receptive and expressive scores significantly predicted English reading comprehension. Notably, total expressive scores consistently predicted English reading comprehension, above and beyond conceptually-scored receptive and expressive vocabulary. We will follow these findings with examinations of semantic categories of words that are known in both Spanish and English, Spanish-only, English-only, and neither. This will offer insight into word types known by bilingual children, which is not only an area of limited research, but also a promising source of information that could inform targeted word instruction and prevent misunderstandings of bilinguals’ language skills.

Scholarly significance: Our findings not only contribute to the scant body of research on the extent to which receptive or expressive vocabulary measures predict language and literacy outcomes among school-aged children from Spanish-speaking homes, but also suggest that total vocabulary administration and scoring may represent a means of more equitably assessing and understanding the language skills of this growing population of learners.

Authors

• Min Hyun Oh, Vanderbilt University

• Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez, Vanderbilt Peabody College

• Jin Kyoung Hwang, University of California - Irvine

• Janna Brown McClain, Middle Tennessee State University