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We worked with 71 Spanish-English biliterate students in grades 3 (n = 21), 4 (n = 23), and 5 (n = 27) in the U.S. with a single specific aim: to test a model of reading comprehension (the simple view; Hoover & Gough, 1990) in English and in Spanish that assessed the role of decoding (ability to read words) and language proficiency (ability to comprehend and produce language) as they predicted comprehension outcomes. The simple view posits that decoding and language proficiency both contribute uniquely in predicting reading comprehension, but that they also may interact with one another to predict reading outcomes. We sought to determine whether this model of reading behaved comparably in Spanish compared to English among a group of biliterate children.
Analogue measures were collected in English and Spanish. Reading comprehension, word reading, and vocabulary were measured using the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey – Revised (Woodcock & Muñoz-Sandoval, 2005). Morphological awareness was assessed with the Extract the Base test (August et al., 2001). Syntactic awareness was assessed with the CELF Formulated Sentences subtest (Semel et al., 2003).
Results suggest both continuities and discontinuities in comparing the profiles of students reading in Spanish and English. With respect to continuities, the tested model resulted in a good fit for both Spanish and English reading, such that decoding and language proficiency each made unique contributions to reading. However, discontinuities in the relationships between these variables and reading comprehension emerged across languages. For Spanish, decoding skills played a less powerful role in predicting reading ( = .30) than did oral language proficiency ( = .47). In English, however, decoding skill was a stronger predictor of reading ( = .50) than oral language proficiency ( = .20). English reading was additionally characterized by an interaction between decoding and oral language proficiency ( = -.12), whereas Spanish was not. The interaction, graphed in Figure 1 below, shows that for higher levels of decoding, the effect of language proficiency on English reading was diminished. In Spanish, the relationships remained constant and language was a far stronger predictor of reading comprehension