This dissertation examined the ways in which African American Language (AAL) speakers utilized AAL in various discursive contexts in an elementary two-way immersion (TWI) Spanish/English dual-language program. In this study, I problematize the notion of TWI programs as an additive program for AAL speakers by investigating the phenomenon from three…

This study investigated the prevalence and stability of latent classes among elementary-aged English learning (EL) children whose first language is Spanish. To this end, EL children (N = 267) in Grades 1, 2, and 3 at Wave 1 (Year 1) were administered a battery of vocabulary, reading, math, and cognitive measures (short-term memory, working memory,…

The role of working memory (WM) in language acquisition has been widely reported in the developmental literature, but few studies have explored the role of sentence recall in the way WM and related linguistic abilities evolve. This study seeks to explore the organization and development of the memory architecture underlying language using a…

Purpose: This study examines the extent to which the Home Literacy Environment (HLE) as measured by reading habits and resources, library use, and subscriptions or materials, as well as parental reading beliefs predict both language skills (i.e., vocabulary) at kindergarten and students' trajectories of growth from kindergarten (K) to grade 3…

Using running records as a lens to facilitate multilingual students' language and literacy development can help teachers recognize and build on students' linguistic capital. The authors analyzed 123 running records of Spanish-speaking first graders to begin to identify the types of language-related errors they made when reading. Using an assets…

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effect of an intensive vocabulary intervention embedded in e-books on the vocabulary skills of young Spanish-English speaking English Learners (ELs) from low SES backgrounds. Methods: Children (288) in kindergarten and first grade were randomly assigned to treatment and read-only conditions. All children…

English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing population of students in U.S. schools, and, unfortunately often experience lower levels of reading and spelling achievement than native English-speaking students. There is growing evidence showing that early reading interventions, which have been effective with native English-speakers, can…

Bilingual education can promote a sense of school belonging for students through a shared valuing of students' home languages and cultures. This article explores how bilingual education contributes to sense of belonging for students who have more than one home language and are becoming trilingual in school. This qualitative study examines how a…

This study applied the dynamic assessment (DA) of narratives in a bilingual Spanish- and English-speaking early elementary population. We examined transfer and change in narrative performance within and across languages after mediated learning experience (MLE) in Spanish or English. Sixty-eight bilingual children were randomized to two groups:…

The current study explored a possible continuum of spelling features that children receiving literacy instruction in Spanish might be expected to master in Grades 1-3. We administered a developmental spelling inventory representing nine distinct Spanish spelling features to 864 students in bilingual and dual language schools across the U.S.…

This pilot study evaluates the feasibility of an integrated intervention titled "Language and Literacy Together" developed to target semantic and narrative skills in bilingual children at risk for developmental language disorder (DLD). Thirteen first-grade bilingual children who scored in the risk range for DLD on the Bilingual English…

This article examines the validity of IQ-achievement discrepancy and low achievement as criteria for the identification of disabilities in Spanish-speaking English-language learners (ELs) and the factors that moderate the validity of these approaches as bases for identification. While there has been a long history of examining the validity of…

Writing development is understood to be a multidimensional task, heavily constrained by spelling in its early stages. However, most available evidence comes from studies with learners of the inconsistent English orthography, so our understanding of the nature of early writing could be highly biased. We explored writing dimensions in each language…

This article examines the validity of IQ-achievement discrepancy and low-achievement as criteria for the identification of disabilities in Spanish-speaking ELs and the factors that moderate the validity of these approaches as bases for identification. While there has been a long history of examining the validity of different approaches to…

The purpose of this evaluation was to assess the impact of the Houston Independent School District's (HISD) Read Houston Read (RHR) on the reading levels of first-grade students. Students were assessed using Benchmark Reading Record (BRR) that was aligned to leveled books and Fountas and Pinnell Reading Levels. Descriptive statistics were used to…