Dual language development of Latino children: Effect of instructional program type and the home and school language environment

Abstract

Latino dual language children typically enter school with a wide range of proficiencies in Spanish and English, many with low proficiency in both languages, yet do make gains in one or both languages during their first school years. Dual language development is associated with how language is used at home and school, as well as the type of instructional program children receive at school. The present study investigates how changes in both Spanish and English proficiencies of Latino, second-generation immigrant children (n =163) from kindergarten to second grade relate to instructional program type as well as language use at home and school. A series of MANCOVAs demonstrated significant dual language gains in children who were in bilingual classrooms and schools where Spanish was used among the teachers, students, and staff. Furthermore, only in classrooms where both Spanish and English were used did children reach age-appropriate levels of academic proficiency in both languages. Home language use was also significantly associated with dual language gains as was maternal Spanish vocabulary knowledge before controlling for maternal education. Educational implications and potential benefits associated with bilingualism are discussed.

The Impact of the Spanish-to-English Proficiency Shift on the Grammaticality of English Learners

“…Despite evidence of the documented effectiveness of bilingual instructional programs for the language development of both Spanish and English (Rolstad et al, 2008), bilingual instruction was not enough to maintain general indices of grammaticality in the children in this study. In principle, our results are similar to those of Collins (2014) and Proctor et al (2010), who showed significant gains in both Spanish and English for children in bilingual programs, with no gains in Spanish for children in Englishonly programs. Importantly, Proctor et al observed a pattern of decline in reading performance in Spanish reading even for those children instructed in both languages.…”

“…Although continued development of both languages is possible under the right circumstances (e.g., community support, availability of bilingual schools, high language status. ; Collins, 2014;Paradis, 2010;Rolstad, Mahoney, & Glass, 2008), the sociolinguistic environment in the United States might not be ideal to support continued bilingual development within and among generations. For example, intergenerational studies of Spanish maintenance in the United States suggest the use of Spanish in a family is lost after two to three generations (e.g., Bills, Hudson, & Hernandez-Chavez, 2000;Rumbaut, Massey, & Bean, 2006).…”

A Comparison of the Grammatical Production of Child Heritage Speakers of Spanish across Language and Grade: Kindergarten and Grade 1

“…All children attended schools with regular English instruction, but had frequent oral interactions with bilingual educators in Spanish during the school day in a school environment that included many Spanish speakers. Our investigation supports views that maintaining proficiency in Spanish requires a combination of home and school instruction [62,63] with daily Spanish communication in the household. In this case, children had informal interactions in Spanish with bilingual school educators.…”

The Global Conference on Education and Research: Volume 1

“…In the growing anti-bilingual education climate, emergent bilinguals have been robbed of the opportunity to use and develop their bi-/multi-lingual ability. Research has evidenced that using students' home language facilitates emergent bilinguals to better understand new content and further leads to stronger academic outcomes (Collins, 2014;Rolstad, Mahoney & Glass, 2005;August & Shanahan, 2006). To this end, translanguaging as pedagogy, which acknowledges and values students' cultural and linguistic resources, provides a viable approach to support bilingualism and biliteracy, and to make the rigorous standards-driven curriculum more accessible to emergent bilinguals (García, 2014).…”