Emergent literacy skills in bilingual children: evidence for the role of L1 syntactic comprehension

Gabriele, Alison; Troseth, Erika; Martohardjono, Gita; Otheguy, Ricardo

doi:10.1080/13670050802331816

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We also found that prior research by and large involved a pair of typologically related languages, such as Spanish and English (Gabriele et al., ), Russian and English (Abu‐Rabia, ), and Portuguese and English (Da Fontoura & Siegel, ), which are both alphabetic in nature. Koda (, ) suggested that in L1‐induced facilitation in L2 literacy development, the degree of transfer is affected by the linguistic distance between the target languages.…”

Section: Cross‐language Transfer Of Syntactic Skills In Bilingual Reasupporting

confidence: 69%

“…This study used typologically distinct languages and found that students learning in an L2 language, dissimilar from their L1, could still benefit from their available L1 syntactic skills to support L2 reading comprehension. This represents a significant extension of the scant research on syntactic transfer, which typically involved typologically related languages (e.g., Spanish, English; Gabriele et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Second, a simple correlation between L1 syntactic skills and L2 reading comprehension was typically taken as evidence for syntactic transfer in these studies. The contribution of other factors (e.g., nonverbal intelligence, oral language proficiency, working memory), which were associated with both syntactic skills and literacy, were not partialed out in some studies (e.g., Abu‐Rabia & Siegel, ; Gabriele et al., ). In the present study, we carefully controlled for the effects of nonverbal intelligence, working memory, and oral language proficiency, hence offering more compelling evidence to demonstrate a part of L1 syntactic skills in L2 reading comprehension.…”

Section: Cross‐language Transfer Of Syntactic Skills In Bilingual Reamentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Abu‐Rabia and Siegel () reported a significant correlation between syntactic skills and word recognition both within and across languages in Arabic–English‐speaking Canadian students. Recently, Gabriele, Troseth, Martohardjono and Otheguy () found that L1 syntactic skill was a significant predictor of text comprehension in the L2 among Spanish–English bilingual preschoolers. Nevertheless, some others failed to demonstrate a significant relationship between L1 syntactic skills and L2 word reading in Russian–English (Abu‐Rabia, ) and Portuguese–English bilingual students (Da Fontoura & Siegel, ).…”

Section: Cross‐language Transfer Of Syntactic Skills In Bilingual Reamentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Cross-Language Transfer of Syntactic Skills and Reading Comprehension Among Young Cantonese-English Bilingual Students

Siu

2015

Read Res Q

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The present study examined the roles of different dimensions of syntactic skills in predicting reading comprehension within and across two languages with contrasting structural properties: Chinese and English. A total of 413 young Cantonese-English bilingual students in Hong Kong (202 first graders and 211 third graders) were tested on word order skill, morphosyntactic skill, and reading comprehension in both L1 and L2. Hierarchical regressions showed that after partialing out the effects of age, nonverbal intelligence, working memory, oral vocabulary, and word reading, word order skill was more predictive of reading comprehension in both L1 and L2 in grade 1 than morphosyntactic skill. In grade 3, morphosyntactic skill emerged to be an equally and even a more important skill than word order skill in L1 and L2 reading, respectively. In both age cohorts, L1 syntactic skills cross-linguistically predicted L2 reading comprehension even when age, oral language, and general cognitive skills were statistically controlled. Statistical equation modeling mediation analyses revealed that this syntactic transfer from L1 to L2 was mediated by L2 syntactic skills but not L1 reading comprehension. When we further investigated the transfer of individual syntactic skills, word order skill appeared to be more transferable than morphosyntactic skill early in grade 1, in support of the transfer facilitation model. The findings suggest that young bilingual students may draw on the correspondence between L1 and L2 syntax to support their L2 learning, hence informing educators of issues and strategies that they should take note of in designing an effective L2 learning program.

show abstract

Section: Cross‐language Transfer Of Syntactic Skills In Bilingual Reasupporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Cross‐language Transfer Of Syntactic Skills In Bilingual Reamentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Cross‐language Transfer Of Syntactic Skills In Bilingual Reamentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Cross-Language Transfer of Syntactic Skills and Reading Comprehension Among Young Cantonese-English Bilingual Students

Siu

2015

Read Res Q

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The importance of syntactic awareness for reading comprehension has been well-documented in research with second language learners (e.g., Gabriele, Troseth, Martohardjono, & Otheguy, 2009; Lipka & Siegel, 2012). For example, Geva and Farnia (2012) conducted a longitudinal study that tracked the literacy development of English-as-a-first language (EL1) children and English language learners (ELLs) from Grades 2 to 5.…”

Section: Input and Language Development: Bilingual Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between input and literacy and metalinguistic development: A study with Chinese–English bilinguals

Kuo

Chen

et al. 2018

International Journal of Bilingualism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between input and literacy/ metalinguistic development in bilingual children. Participants included fourth-grade Chinese-English bilinguals from Taiwan and the USA. The two groups were comparable in socioeconomic status, non-verbal IQ, and the amount of literacy instruction in Chinese and English, but the bilingual participants from Taiwan had more exposure to Chinese and less exposure to English outside of school than their US counterparts. A battery of standardized and researcher-developed measures of literacy and metalinguistic skills were administered in English and Chinese. Results showed that, in general, the greater the amount of input, the more superior the linguistic/metalinguistic development. However, advantages associated with input appeared to be offset by a more balanced bilingual experience on measures that assessed higher levels of metalinguistic awareness. In addition, hierarchical regression analyses showed that morpho-syntactic awareness made a unique contribution to reading comprehension beyond that by vocabulary and morphological awareness only among the participants in Taiwan. The findings make several noteworthy contributions to research on input among bilingual learners. Firstly, the present study highlights the importance of recognizing the variations of bilinguals who speak the same pair of languages, and the impact of linguistic input outside of the school context on language and literacy development in academic settings. Secondly, findings from the present study call for a broader conceptualization of the relationship between input and linguistic/metalinguistic development, and underscore the importance of examining how input may impact the relationship of linguistic and metalinguistic variables. Finally, the present study highlights the need to re-conceptualize input. Indicators of input should go beyond to the quantity or quality of exposure to the assessed language, and be expanded to include the degree of balance in both languages.

show abstract

Saving the Children: The Challenges of Educating Refugee Youth

Ayalon

Ayalon²

2019

Bilingualism and Bilingual Education: Politics, Policies and Practices in a Globalized Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Emergent literacy skills in bilingual children: evidence for the role of L1 syntactic comprehension

Cited by 11 publications

References 44 publications

Cross-Language Transfer of Syntactic Skills and Reading Comprehension Among Young Cantonese-English Bilingual Students

Cross-Language Transfer of Syntactic Skills and Reading Comprehension Among Young Cantonese-English Bilingual Students

The relationship between input and literacy and metalinguistic development: A study with Chinese–English bilinguals

Saving the Children: The Challenges of Educating Refugee Youth

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About