Variables That Affect Bilingual Spanish/English and English-Speaking Children's Word Recognition Skills

Email: sandra.levey@lehman.cuny.edu


Please Note: This article was originally published in March 2006. However, the author has significantly rewritten and revised this article, and therefore, we have removed the original version, and replaced it with this version.

Introduction:

Investigators have identified phonological awareness and language skills as major predictors of word recognition skills (Lewis, Freebairn, & Taylor, 2000). There is an important relationship between these two predictors; difficulties in phonology correlate with difficulties in one or more language components (Schwartz, 1994). Discrimination skills were used to investigate phonological awareness, and word recognition was used to investigate language skills. Discrimination skills were addressed in the current study given that the ability to discriminate sounds is an essential component of phonological awareness.

Previous investigations have demonstrated a connection between phonological awareness and reading development (Nation, 2005). Limited literacy skills with insufficient awareness of phonemes has been noted (Durgunoglu & Oney, 2002). Language factors that correlate with reading skills are vocabulary (McGregor, 2004), morphology (Carlisle, 2004) and syntax (Scarborough, 1990; Scarborough and Dobrich, 1990; Scott, 2004). Word recognition plays a major role in reading skills, especially for children in later grades (Bialystok, 2002; MacDonald & Cornwall, 1995; Snowling, 1991; Vellutino & Scanlon, 1987).

Phonological Awareness:

Several terms refer to "phonological awareness" such as; phonological processing, phonemic awareness, phonological sensitivity and phonetic awareness (Justice & Schuele, 2004). The current study examines one aspect of phonological awareness; the ability to discriminate phonemes. Discrimination skills play an important role in word recognition development, providing children with the ability to distinguish visual differences between letters (Catts & Kahmi, 2005). A longitudinal study examined 251 Spanish-speaking children's English language reading development from kindergarten through the second grade (Manis, Lindsey, & Bailey, 2004). Spanish language skills were evaluated in kindergarten and English language skills were evaluated in the first grade. Results showed that print knowledge; vocabulary; sentence repetition skills; phonological awareness; and rapid naming skills played a role in good reading skills. Regression analysis showed the strongest predictors of reading skills were phonological awareness and rapid naming skills, consistent with findings for the predictors of English-speaking children's reading skills (Schatschneider, Carlson, Francis, Foorman, & Fletcher, 2002; Schatschneider, Fletcher, Francis, Carlson, & Foorman, 2004).

Language Awareness:

Developmental stages may affect the relative importance of various predictors of word recognition skills (Parrila, Kirby, & McQuarrie, 2004). Investigators found phonological awareness skills in kindergarten were predictors of single-word word recognition and word decoding in first and second grades, but language skills were the strongest predictors of word recognition comprehension in later grades (Roth, Speece, & Cooper, 2002). A study of the preliteracy skills of 58 kindergarten-aged English-speaking children found similar results (MacDonald & Cornwall, 1995). MacDonald & Cornwall tested pre-literacy skills for kindergarteners and examined their word recognition skills 11 years later using the same test battery. They found phonological skills supported the development of word recognition skills in younger children, while language skills were better predictors of word recognition skills in older children.

Phonological awareness may be more essential in certain languages. Gorman and Gillam (2003) show that phonological awareness differences exist between English and Spanish. Syllable stress has been found to provide English-speaking children for the ability to identify word initial phonemes, but not for Spanish-speaking children (Jiménez & Garcia, 1995). Consonant clusters also differ in these languages, with greater frequency of consonant clusters in words in English than in Spanish (Guirao & Manrique, 1972). In addition, Manrique and Signorini (1994) discovered that Spanish-speaking children are aware of alphabet principles earlier than English-speaking children. The differences between English and Spanish languages may play a role in learning a second language, thus affecting academic progress.