Poster #114 - Science Assessment for Dual Language Learning Head Start Children

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Language, Communication

Integrative Statement

Currently, researchers and practitioners struggle to determine how to assess preschool Dual Language Learning (DLL) children in a way that comprehensively captures their true abilities (Bedore, Peña, Garcia, & Cortez, 2005; Peña, Bedore, & Kester, 2016). DLL children develop their vocabulary across two languages (Baker, 2011) provoking the question: Is it best to assess DLL children in their dominant language, the language of instruction (typically English; Burchinal et al., 2012; Chang et al., 2007), or both languages. This question has been examined to varying degrees in the context of DLL children’s vocabulary and language abilities (Bedore et al., 2005; Goodrich et al., 2015; Rojas & Iglesias, 2013), but has yet to be examined in the domain of science.
Science has recently been recognized on a national level as an area of importance for early childhood education (Office of the Press Secretary, 2016; U.S Department of Early Education, 2016). Early science is a key content area for DLL children because it provides opportunities to learn vocabulary (Guo et al., 2016) through hands-on activities and develop social-emotional skills (Hong & Diamond, 2012) while collaborating with peers. It also facilitates the improvement of domain general skills like executive functioning (Nayfeld, Fuccillo & Greenfield, 2013) and approaches to learning (Bustamante, White, & Greenfield, 2016). Despite all of the benefits that science education provides for young children, to date, no studies have examined DLL children’s outcomes across both languages.
The present study aims to understand 1) whether there are systematic differences in Latino DLL children’s science scores in English and Spanish and 2) if differences occur, whether children’s dominant language predicts their science scores in English and Spanish. It was hypothesized that Spanish/English DLL children will have higher scores on English science outcomes than on Spanish, in accordance with literature examining language of instruction and children’s vocabulary across languages (Burchinal et al., 2012; Chang et al., 2007; Goodrich et al., 2014). It was also expected that dominant language would predict children’s scores in science.
A total of 245 Latino Spanish/English DLL Head Start children from 34 classrooms across were recruited as part of a larger study. Children ranged in age from 36 months to 63 months (M=48.66, SD=6.61). Children were assessed using the prelas2000, a preschool language screener in English and Spanish in the fall. In the spring children were assessed in both English and Spanish using two equivalent science forms of a computer-adaptive assessment (Lens on Science for English and Enfoque en ciencia in Spanish). Order of administration was counterbalanced based on children’s dominant language.
Children scored significantly higher on the Spanish forms (M=.24, SD=.91) than the English forms (M=-.01, SD=.85), t(245) = 4.471, p < .001 (See Figure 1). Dominant Language predicts children’s score on the English Science form, F(2, 249) = 29.06, p < .001 (See Table 1). However, dominant language did not predict children’s score on the Spanish Science form, F(2, 248) = 30.59, p < .001.
Implications of these findings will be discussed.

Authors

• Brooke Rumper, University of Miami
  Presenting Author

• Daryl Greenfield, University of Miami
  Non-Presenting Author