Cross-linguistic influence of early Spanish reading on English reading trajectories among Spanish–English emergent bilinguals: A latent class growth analysis.

Abstract

Spanish-speaking students constitute the largest subgroup of emergent bilingual (EB) students in the United States. Using longitudinal data on a nationally representative sample of Spanish-English EBs, we explore profiles of English reading trajectories and how early individual differences (i.e., early Spanish reading and English oral proficiency) influence English reading development. Latent class growth analysis revealed five distinct growth trajectories of English reading scores across elementary grades. Results showed a fanspread effect, indicating that children with higher mean reading scores in kindergarten also had faster growth in English reading from kindergarten to Grade 5. Results also showed that children with high early Spanish reading were more likely to be a member of the classes with the highest initial English reading scores and fastest growth rates. However, kindergarten English oral proficiency was not related to trajectories of English reading. Our findings highlight that early Spanish reading skill is an important factor in identifying EB children who may be at risk for reading difficulties later in elementary school. Educational Impact and Implications StatementThis study examines differences in English reading growth trajectories among a nationally representative sample of Spanish-English emergent bilinguals (EBs), including examination of how early Spanish reading and English oral proficiency influence English reading development. Results highlight early Spanish reading skills at kindergarten entry as a key factor related to English reading development among EB children. Efforts to screen EBs for reading difficulties should evaluate foundational reading skills in both the home language and English.

Different roles of family socioeconomic status in academic trajectories between emergent bilinguals and their peers across primary years.

“…The results suggest the importance of school-level effects on children’s initial achievement. Indeed, factors such as school district poverty serve as good indicators of available community resources, including school funding, teacher quality, and early childhood education opportunities, all of which can contribute to children’s academic development and success (Owens, 2018; Shen & Goodrich, 2024).…”

“…First, unconditional growth curve models were specified to determine the overall intercept and slope of academic achievement across Grades k −5. Slopes of the growth were not constrained to be linear, as previous research often reports nonlinear growth trajectories (e.g., Farnia & Geva, 2013; Shen et al, 2022; Shen & Goodrich, 2024; Wei et al, 2015). Instead, we fixed slope loadings for the first and last time points to identify the model and freely estimated slope loadings for all middle time points (T.…”

Mathematical problem solving in emergent bilingual children: Is growth related to the navigation between two working memory systems?

“…However, to the authors’ knowledge, the additive influence of the Spanish (L1) memory system on an English (L2) WM system and its influence on academic achievement has not been investigated. Although the transfer of L1 cognitive skills (e.g., phonological processes) has been examined extensively in L2 academic domains, such as reading (Feinauer et al, 2017; Shen & Goodrich, 2024), the transfer of L1 WM to L2 WM and L2 WPS has not been tested.…”