Relationships Between Vocabulary Size, Working Memory, and Phonological Awareness in Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners

Abstract

Purpose The goals of this study were to evaluate the impact of short-term phonological awareness (PA) instruction presented in children’s first language (L1; Spanish) on gains in their L1 and second language (L2; English) and to determine whether relationships exist between vocabulary size, verbal working memory, and PA in Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs). Method Participants included 25 kindergartners who received PA instruction and 10 controls. A 2-way within-subjects repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to evaluate gains. Relationships between PA gains, Spanish and English vocabulary, and memory, as measured using nonword repetition and experimental working memory tasks, were analyzed using correlation and regression analyses. Results Results indicated significant and equivalent gains in both languages of children in the experimental group and no gains in the control group. Spanish vocabulary size was significantly related to PA gains in both languages and was more strongly related to English gains than was English vocabulary size. The memory tasks predicted gains in each language in distinct ways. Conclusion Results support the conclusion that PA instruction and strong vocabulary skills in an individual’s L1 benefit PA development in both the L1 and L2. Results also indicate that dynamic relationships exist between vocabulary size, storage and processing components of working memory, and PA development in both languages of ELLs.

Growth in literacy, cognition, and working memory in English language learners

“…Working memory has been referred to as a processing resource of limited capacity involved in the preservation of information while simultaneously processing the same or other information (e.g., Baddeley, 2012;Engle, Tuholski, Laughlin, & Conway, 1999). Several studies suggest that the development of WM involves the increasing ability to retain information (e.g., Alloway, Gathercole, Kirkwood, & Elliot, 2009;Gathercole, Pickering, Ambridge, & Wearing, 2004;Swanson, 2011) and that such development may be related to English language learners' performance on measures of reading and language acquisition (e.g., Gorman, 2012;Swanson, Sáez, & Gerber, 2006).…”

The influence of language proficiency on language-based processing skills: evidence from Korean–English bilingual children

“…Given that some previous research has found that nonword repetition performance is correlated with language familiarity, and that greater vocabulary knowledge is often associated with higher levels of nonword recall (Gorman, 2012;Lee and Gorman, 2012;Masoura and Gathercole, 1999), it is interesting to note that both NRT and KNRT accuracy was unrelated to the language test scores. It is possible that this result is an advantage of bilingualism.…”

Rapid Automatic Naming Performance of Young Spanish–English Speaking Children

“…A deficit in either phonological skills or naming speed is thought to result in a less severe form of reading disability than a combined deficit. While tasks such as rhyming, alliteration, categorization, phoneme blending, segmentation, elision, and nonword repetition (NWR) measure phonological skill [33,[36][37][38][39], rapid automatic naming (RAN) is the primary measure of naming speed. There exists some controversy regarding the theoretical explanations for the relationship between naming speed and reading [40], with differing key constructs thought to underly the relationship including phonological awareness [41], orthographic processing [42], and general cognitive processing or executive function [43].…”