Bilingual children's English and Spanish receptive vocabulary and oral comprehension both increased across two years of Head Start, with group advantages in the language of prior exposure¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2011 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2016: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q3 i? All four language measures showed positive linear growth across Head Start, with English measures favoring HEC children and Spanish measures favoring SEC children. → Davison 2011

Evidence¶

Davison 2011¶

Davison, Megan Dunn; Hammer, Carol; Lawrence, Frank R. (2011). Associations between Preschool Language and First Grade Reading Outcomes in Bilingual Children. Journal of Communication Disorders. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3138808/

q3 · i? · associational · r2

First-stage growth curve models of the four language measures (TELD-3, PPVT-III, PLS-3, TVIP) in the two Head Start years. The article reports that "the children's English receptive vocabulary grew at an increasing rate during their two years in Head Start," with parallel trajectories between groups and group advantages matching exposure history.

"The estimated growth parameters of the PPVT-III contained both a positive linear rate-of-change (β = 4.3, p < 0.05) and an acceleration term (β = 1.78, p < 0.05), suggesting that the children's English receptive vocabulary grew at an increasing rate during their two years in Head Start."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Growth in Spanish receptive language during Head Start predicts first-grade English letter-word identification and passage comprehension, with timing-of-exposure group differences for Spanish vocabulary — related
• Growth in bilingual preschoolers' Spanish receptive vocabulary and oral comprehension during Head Start positively predicts first-grade Spanish letter-word identification and passage comprehension — related
• Growth in bilingual preschoolers' English receptive vocabulary and oral comprehension during Head Start positively predicts first-grade English letter-word identification and passage comprehension — related
• Growth in English receptive language during Head Start predicts first-grade Spanish letter-word identification and passage comprehension, supporting cross-language transfer — related
• Timing of English exposure moderates how vocabulary growth predicts reading: English vocabulary growth predicted HEC children's English passage comprehension while Spanish vocabulary growth predicted SEC children's English reading — related
• Simultaneous and sequential DLL learners show opposite vocabulary patterns in English versus the home language — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• DLL children can catch up to monolingual norms in English vocabulary, but need substantial time and exposure to do so — related
• Bilingual children score higher in English than Spanish, with the language effect larger in the expressive modality — related