Dual Language Intervention for Bilinguals at Risk for Language Impairment

Abstract

Selecting the initial language of intervention for bilingual children at risk for language impairment is challenging for clinicians, as both the home and academic languages are important for children's successful communication. In this project, six Spanish-English bilingual first graders at risk for language impairment participated in an 8-week intervention program targeting vocabulary, morphosyntax, narrative, and literacy skills in both Spanish and English. Children completed 24 small-group sessions (three times a week). One group received Spanish intervention first, then English, and another group received English first, then Spanish. The systematic use of both languages in intervention resulted in overall gains in vocabulary and narrative skills in this short-term intervention. Language condition groups differed in performance on oral narratives and semantics. Clinical recommendations for selecting the initial language of intervention are discussed.

Crosslinguistic Influence (CLI) of Lexical Breadth and Depth in the Vocabulary of Bilingual Kindergarten Children – A Bilingual Intervention Study

“…Although some evidence has been found in previous studies for CLI involving lexical breadth ( Armon-Lotem et al, 2020 ), many scholars have noted that lexical items are presumed to be learned one at a time in each language ( David and Wei, 2008 ; Bialystok et al, 2010 ), and thus are unlikely to transfer automatically across languages without explicit connections being made, unless they are cognates ( August et al, 2005 ). In the current study, if explicit connections had been made across languages [e.g., by providing translations of words learned, or by pointing out associations across languages, as suggested by Lugo-Neris et al (2015) ] it is possible that the children would have learned more words in the other language. It is also possible that additional follow-up questions for each word may have elicited more information about the children’s knowledge and would have revealed more evidence of growth as a result of CLI.…”

“…At PM1 and PM2, the children are exposed to unfamiliar concepts they do not recognize but acquisition has begun. Once they build foundations, even in another language, their strong HL foundation allows them to make larger SL gains once intervention in the SL is internalized (Cummins, 1979(Cummins, , 1981Lugo-Neris et al, 2015). Thus, the fact that the vocabulary intervention was provided first in the stronger language may have enhanced their word learning skills and provided a basis for learning in the weaker language.…”

“…Some intervention studies have focused on the language of instruction as a variable in performance ( Ebert et al, 2014 ). Lugo-Neris et al (2015) investigated the order of the language of intervention for a group of Spanish-English bilinguals at risk for language impairment, and found that those who received initial intervention in HL/Spanish (the more proficient language for most of the children) made larger gains than those who began in SL/English. This finding provided the motivation in the current study for intervening first in the HL/English, as it was the more dominant language for most of the children.…”

Spanish Language and Literacy Intervention for Bilingual Children at Risk for Developmental Language Disorder

“…With bilinguals, many of these shared book-reading interventions feature elements of evidence-based vocabulary instruction to support dual language or first language instruction and intervention. Common methods include (a) targeting Tier 1 (basic) and Tier 2 (mature and frequent text-based vocabulary) words; (b) providing repeated practice with and multiple exposures to vocabulary targets in sentence and discourse contexts; (c) incorporating phonological cues to aid storage and retrieval of vocabulary; (d) expanding on word definitions in context; and (e) providing for metalinguistic analysis such as morphological or word study (e.g., Carlo et al, 2004; Cena et al, 2013; Cirino et al, 2009; Lugo-Neris et al, 2015; Restrepo et al, 2013). Intervention with a cognitive focus, such as mediated learning experiences (MLE), also has been successful in improving bilinguals' vocabulary (Peña & Quin, 1997).…”

“…Bilingual intervention can be delivered either in one of the bilingual child's two languages or in both (e.g., Lugo-Neris et al, 2015; Spencer et al, 2019). Lugo-Neris et al (2015) delivered interventions first in one language and then the other with one group Spanish first, the other English first.…”