This longitudinal study will design and implement an intervention program to improve the languageskills of Spanish-English bilingual kindergarten students and to assess the impact of the interventionon their early literacy skills. The intervention program will focus on improving vocabulary andextended discourse skills, aspects of children's oral language skills that have been shown to berelated to literacy outcomes and that research has identified as areas of weakness for young bilingualstudents. Using a quasi-experimental design, the researcher will develop and test three different typesof interventions to explore whether improved Spanish vocabulary skills transfer to improved Englishperformance automatically, or whether their effect depends on linking enrichment in Spanishspecifically to new English learning. Kindergarten children from Spanish-speaking backgrounds will beassigned to one of four groups Spanish home intervention, English classroom intervention, Spanishhome intervention linked to English classroom intervention, or a no-intervention control group.The study design has five aims:1. To develop and implement an intervention program designed to improve Spanish-speakingchildren's oral language skills;2. To compare the impact of delivering the program in the native language at home with the impactof delivering it in English in the kindergarten classroom and the impact ofdelivering it in bothlanguages and venues simultaneously;3. To explore the nature of transfer from Spanish to English by explicitly comparing outcomes for theSpanish-only to the Spanish-plus-English versions of the program;4. To compare the impact of the program on children with varying degrees of skill in Spanish andEnglish; and5. To examine the relationships between the short-term effects of the intervention on oral Englishskills and its long-term effects on English literacy through second grade.Unifying the this subproject with the other three subprojects and two cores proposed in this programproject is a shared model for the development of word knowledge and comprehension skills, theapproaches used to promote word knowledge, and the methods used in the conduct of the research.Like the other subprojects, it begins with the model of L2 reading comprehension outlined by Proctor,Carlo, August, & Snow (2005), which states that decoding and oral language skills are importantfactors in the reading process, with oral language (and vocabulary knowledge, in particular) beingstronger reading predictors of comprehension. It also builds on findings from the cross-projectanalyses cited in the Research Program Overview that indicate the instrumental role that vocabularyplays in reading comprehension.Like the other subprojects, this study recognizes that vocabulary is one of best predictors of readingcomprehension, that it is a complex construct that has many components, that it is learned in multiplecontexts at both home and school, that it is a domain of particular weakness for ELLs, and that it is adomain in which the workings of first to second language transfer have been only minimallyinvestigated.Like the interventions outlined in Subprojects 3 and 4, the design of the interventions proposed herehave been framed using the four-pronged vocabulary program proposed by Graves (2006). Thatprogram outlines four components of an effective vocabulary program: providing rich and variedlanguage experiences; teaching individual words; teaching word-learning strategies; and fosteringword consciousness. There is strong evidence that these four components are effective strategies forimproving vocabulary knowledge. Because this study is concerned with young children the focus ofthe intervention is on providing rich and varied language experiences and teaching individual words.This study also shares a commitment to sound methodology with the other proposed studies in theprogram project. We will collect longitudinal data and use individual and multilevel growth modeling inorder to shed light on the complex relationships among oral language and literacy skills, both withinlanguage and across languages. Growth modeling will also allow for an examination of those skillsthat have an effect on developmental trajectories in English and/or Spanish. We will use mentoringand professional development to ensure that the interventions are well implemented; measure homeand classroom contextual variables that might influence students' outcomes; and employ measuresthat are psychometrically sound as well as consistent with those used by the other subprojects tomake cross-project analyses possible.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Program Projects (P01)
Project #
5P01HD039530-07
Application #
7714563
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZHD1-DSR-H (DA))
Project Start
2008-06-01
Project End
2012-05-31
Budget Start
2008-06-01
Budget End
2009-05-31
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$197,476
Indirect Cost
Name
Center for Applied Linguistics
Department
Type
DUNS #
049515919
City
Washington
State
DC
Country
United States
Zip Code
20016
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Mancilla-Martinez, Jeannette; Lesaux, Nonie K (2011) The gap between Spanish speakers' word reading and word knowledge: a longitudinal study. Child Dev 82:1544-60
Mancilla-Martinez, Jeannette; Lesaux, Nonie K (2010) Predictors of Reading Comprehension for Struggling Readers: The Case of Spanish-speaking Language Minority Learners. J Educ Psychol 102:701-711
Paez, Mariela M; Tabors, Patton O; Lopez, Lisa M (2007) Dual language and literacy development of Spanish-speaking preschool children. J Appl Dev Psychol 28:85-102
Uccelli, Paola; Paez, Mariela M (2007) Narrative and vocabulary development of bilingual children from kindergarten to first grade: developmental changes and associations among English and Spanish skills. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 38:225-36