Relationships Among Oral Language Skills and Reading and Math Achievement for Emerging Spanish-English-Speaking Bilinguals

• In Event: Using Innovative Methodological Approaches to Explore the Heterogeneity of Latinx Dual Language Learners Within Early Childhood Classrooms

Abstract

Identifying early reading and math achievement precursors is crucial for both preventative and intervention programs in terms of children’s achievement levels and cost effectiveness (Hollands et al., 2013; Reynolds & Temple, 2008). One key precursor linked to children’s reading and math achievement is children’s oral language skills (Petscher et al., 2020; Cirino et al., 2018). Oral language has remained a pillar within the science of reading for decades and has been supported through empirical evidence to significantly predict children’s overall reading comprehension (Catts, 2018; Petscher et al., 2020). Additionally, there is evidence that the relationships between oral language skills and reading achievement vary across languages for DLLs (Florit & Cain, 2011). Equally interesting, oral language has been identified as a contributor to variability found within children’s math achievement (Cirino, 2018). Few studies have explored oral language as a precursor for both literacy and math achievement and even fewer that have explored the variability across languages for DLLs (Cirino, 2018). The objective of this study is to explore the relationships between oral language skills and reading and math achievement for emerging Spanish-English bilingual preschool children at the .25, .50, and .75 quantiles.
The current study is theoretically grounded in the cultural adaptation of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of development (Vélez-Agosto et al. 2017) and translanguaging pedagogical approaches (García & Lin, 2018). These theories support the current study by moving beyond monoglossic ideologies of language and literacy, and considers multilingualism and culture to be assets that can be leveraged for academic achievement (García & Lin, 2018; Vélez-Agosto et al., 2017). Translanguaging pedagogy accomplishes this by honoring cultures and language practices of all children and takes into consideration DLL children’s full linguistic repertoires (Garcia & Lin, 2018).
Through utilization of ordinary least squares (OLS) and quantile regression models, this study explored the relationship between oral language and reading and math achievement of DLLs within pre-k 4 Head Start programs (n = 330) (Koenker & Hallock, 2001). Measures for oral language, literacy, and math consist of composite scores obtained from the standardized W scores of the Woodcock-Johnson III/Batería III (Woodcock et al. 2001, Muñoz et al., 2009). As predicted, we found that English and Spanish oral language skills significantly contributed to the variability found within all measures for literacy and math in English and Spanish at a p ≤ .01, with greater variability found within language measures. English oral language accounted for 27.5% of the variability of English literacy and 54.2% of the variability of English math performance. While Spanish oral language skills accounted for 28.3% of variability in Spanish literacy and 41.5% of the variability in Spanish math performance. Cross language variability was also found to be significant while contributing to less variation than within language skills. Our quantile regression analyses revealed oral language contributed to the variabilities of all within language measures for literacy and math with differences between variability across quantiles. Our analyses support translanguaging pedagogies by highlighting the importance of leveraging DLL children’s full linguistic repertoires within assessment.

Authors

• Shaunacy Robert Sutter, University of South Florida
  Presenting Author

• Matthew Edward Foster, University of South Florida - Tampa
  Presenting Author

• Lisa M. Lopez, University of South Florida
  Presenting Author