It takes two to make a thing go write: self-reported Spanish reading and writing skill and relationships with digit span and stroop task performance among Spanish-English bilinguals

Abstract

The current study examined first language (Spanish) language reading and writing ability and behavior and relationships with digit span and stroop task performance. A battery of assessments and questionnaires was administered to 81 sequential Spanish-English bilingual university students in the U.S., for whom the sole language of education is English. . Hierarchical regression models revealed amount of Spanish used for academic writing uniquely accounted for 17% of variance in digit span forward scores, controlling for non-verbal IQ. Selfreported Spanish reading and writing ability also significantly predicted higher digit span forward scores and stroop task performance. Findings indicate that vectors of within-population difference related to L1 academic reading and writing are associated with differences in verbal short term memory and inhibition. Findings underscore the importance of considering diversity within bilingual samples and further support theories of a continuum of bilingual experience intensity, which is related to outcomes.

Multilingual use assessment questionnaire: a proposal for assessing language and literacy experience

“…In addition, the multidimensional multifaceted nature of bilingualism calls for identifying the components which are relevant to multilingual profiles to develop research approaches where these components are related to specific linguistic and cognitive outcomes (Rothman et al, 2023). For instance, self-evaluated multilingual competence is identified as positively impacting text length in text production in elementary and secondary school children (Tolchinsky et al, 2022); self-reported amount of Spanish used for academic writing in Spanish-English bilinguals accounted for differences in short-term memory tasks (Smith and Briggs Baffoe-Djan, 2019). However, there is still no consensus as to which components of the bilingual profile must be measured.…”