Spanish use at home does not limit English learning: young Spanish–English bilinguals with more Spanish at school entry show higher English skills by year's end¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2024 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Across three aggregated studies, Spanish–English bilinguals who knew more Spanish at entry to the educational system were more likely to have higher English skills at the end of the school year. → Rolla 2024

Evidence¶

Rolla 2024¶

Rolla, A., & Mottesi, G. (2024). Bilingual Beginnings: Planning Kindergarten Entry Assessments for Spanish–English Speakers. WestEd, Region 15 Comprehensive Center. https://csaa.wested.org/resource/kindergarten-entry-assessments-an-examination-of-best-practices-national-trends-and-recommendations/

q2 · i? · review · r2

The brief reports, citing Hammer et al. (2020), aggregate results from three studies: children "who knew more Spanish when they entered the educational system were also more likely to have higher skills in English at the end of the school year." No effect sizes are printed.

"Aggregate results from three studies found that young Spanish–English bilinguals who knew more Spanish when they entered the educational system were also more likely to have higher skills in English at the end of the school year— Spanish use at home in no way limited children’s abilities to learn English (Hammer et al., 2020)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Preserving a bilingual student's heritage language supports rather than hinders English acquisition — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• Spanish–English bilinguals performed better on kindergarten mathematics assessments when tested in Spanish — related
• Promoting minority children's L1 raises L1 achievement at no cost to L2 achievement — a broader claim this one bears on
• As of 2024, only 10 U.S. states explicitly include Spanish–English bilinguals in their kindergarten entry assessments, while 41 states implicitly include or do not include them — related
• Simultaneous and sequential DLL learners show opposite vocabulary patterns in English versus the home language — related
• DLL children can catch up to monolingual norms in English vocabulary, but need substantial time and exposure to do so — 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
• Mexican American children used more heritage language at home while Korean American children used more English — related