Oral and written language abilities in young Spanish/English bilinguals

• Autores: Alfredo Ardila Ardila, Mónica Rosselli, Alexandra Ortega, Merike Lang, Valeria L Torres
• Localización: International Journal of Bilingualism: interdisciplinary studies of multilingual behaviour, ISSN 1367-0069, Vol. 23, Nº. 1, 2019, págs. 296-312
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Purpose:

    The purpose of this study was to compare oral and written language abilities in English and Spanish of young bilinguals residing in the USA.

    Methodology:

    Sixty-two participants (mean age = 23.7; SD = 3.50), consisting of 42 bilinguals (born of Spanish-speaking parents) and 20 English monolinguals, were administered a battery of 15 language tasks.

    Analysis:

    Bilinguals were divided into two groups: (a) US-born (simultaneous bilinguals who had been exposed to English and Spanish since birth and educated primarily in English) and (b) Latin American-born (early sequential bilinguals who were educated in Spanish and English, although exposed to Spanish at birth and to English before the age of 10).

    Findings:

    Higher lexical ability was demonstrated in English compared to Spanish in bilinguals. Performance in grammar tests of the two languages was inconsistent. Reading/writing ability in English was similar for participants born in the USA and in Latin America; however, participants who were born in Latin America had significantly higher scores for Spanish reading/writing tasks. When comparing performance in English tests, it was found that scores for bilingual participants were similar to those of English monolinguals.

    Originality:

    The current study directly compares oral and written language abilities in two subgroups of young Spanish/English bilinguals. Three language dimensions are studied: lexicon/grammar; oral/written language; and language knowledge/language use.

    Implications:

    Our results suggest that bilingualism does not interfere with normal linguistic ability in English.

    Limitations:

    The current study was carried out in a specific bilingual context. Generalization of these results should be done with caution