RECEPTIVE VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT OF SPANISH-ENGLISH BILINGUAL PRESCHOOLERS
Open Access
- Author:
- O'Neill, Tara Anne
- Area of Honors:
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Carol Anne Miller, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Krista M Wilkinson, Faculty Reader
Dr. Carol Anne Miller, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Carol Anne Miller, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- bilingualism
language development
preschoolers
Latino
Hispanic
receptive vocabulary
Head Start - Abstract:
- This study investigated the receptive vocabulary development of bilingual children in English and Spanish through two years of Head Start preschool and one year of kindergarten. Receptive vocabulary data collected in the fall and spring of each year were available for 42 children from the beginning of Head Start through the end of kindergarten. Results revealed that the children’s average raw scores in Spanish increased, while standard scores remained fairly steady throughout each measurement occasion. Both raw and standard scores in English increased from the beginning of Head Start to the end of kindergarten. On average, Spanish scores remained one standard deviation below the age appropriate mean at each measurement occasion. English scores on average came within one standard deviation of the mean by the start of kindergarten. Below average standard scores were not attributed to language impairment, and their implications will be discussed. A closer examination of a subgroup of children who performed above average relative to the sample on the Spanish receptive language measure revealed that most of them were not formally exposed to English until Head Start, they were more likely to have a father present in the home, and they were spoken to in Spanish more at home. An examination of a subgroup of children who performed below average in English relative to the sample revealed that the children were spoken to in Spanish more at home, while no other demographic variables were noticeably different among this subgroup. These findings suggest that children are experiencing a shift in language dominance from Spanish to English. Furthermore, language used at home and the age of exposure to English appear to play a critical role in receptive vocabulary development of Spanish and English, while no relationship was apparent for other demographic variables such as paternal education, maternal depression, and number of siblings. The best practices for speech-language pathologists to use in assessing receptive vocabulary development among Spanish-English bilinguals are discussed.