We examined spelling errors patterns, cohesive ties, and syntax features in English and Spanish essays written by Spanish-English emergent bilinguals in Grades 1, 2, and 3 (N = 278; 51% female) enrolled in either English immersion or English-Spanish dual immersion programs. In Study 1, we addressed whether students made consistent spelling errors…

The study investigates the effects of bilingualism and biliteracy on thought organisation, and syntactic complexity in the written production in a group of fifty 11-year-old children (M = 10.7) enrolled in 5th and 6th grades in a bilingual school in the south of Brazil. The children's home and community language is Portuguese, and they have been…

Students are expected to comprehend and produce increasingly complex texts in upper elementary school, and academic language and literacy skills are considered critical to meeting these expectations. Notions of academic language are also controversial and require careful deliberation when applied to traditionally minoritized populations, including…

Existing research on the impact of bilingualism on metalinguistic development has concentrated on the development of phonological awareness. The present study extended the scope of existing research by focusing on morphological awareness, an aspect of metalinguistic awareness that becomes increasingly important beyond the initial phase of literacy…

This study aimed to describe home literacy (HL) activities of Spanish-/English-speaking children of low-socioeconomic status backgrounds and examine the relationship between HL and performance on standardized assessments. Parents of 65 dual-language learners (DLLs) in kindergarten completed an HL questionnaire. Parents reported an average of 17…

This study aimed to describe home literacy (HL) activities of Spanish-/English-speaking children of low-socioeconomic status backgrounds and examine the relationship between HL and performance on standardized assessments. Parents of 65 dual-language learners (DLLs) in kindergarten completed an HL questionnaire. Parents reported an average of 17…

This paper addresses the issue of whether negative sentences containing auxiliary "do" in L1 and L2 English share the same underlying syntactic representation. To this end, I compare the negative sentences produced by 77 bilingual (Spanish/Basque) L2 learners of English with the corresponding data available for L1 acquirers reported on in Schutze…

Spanish-speaking children of Northern New Mexico exhibit varying degrees of interference and integration of English in their speech. (CK)

This is the second of a series of three volumes containing papers from a bilingual symposium held in 1975. Presentations and discussion at the symposium dealt primarily with suggestions for research which linguists should undertake to assist bilingual programs. This volume contains the following papers: "A Survey of Research in Syntax," by Arnold…

The question has been raised whether various measures of language proficiency that concentrate on different aspects of language are equivalent. Studies have been conducted by various agencies comparing language proficiency assessment instruments. Of interest here are the BINL, LAS, and BSM tests. Because each test has a different set of criteria…

The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable instrument that could be used by teachers and staff in Colorado to assist in the assessment of oral English language, particularly the syntax and the phonology of first-grade children in bilingual bicultural education (BBE). The study also related the scores of the instrument to seven variables:…

In order to compare methods of instructing Spanish-speaking children in oral English, 11 children were randomly assigned to the control group--instruction conducted in English using the Peabody Development Kit (PDK)--while 12 children were assigned to the experimental group--bilingual instruction using the PDK. At the outset, all children were…

Compares 1973 and 1978 studies of the English syntactic proficiency of bilingual Mexican-American fourth- and ninth-grade Spanish/English speakers in Las Vegas (New Mexico). Shows that students enrolled in bilingual education throughout the elementary school years perform better on syntactic maturity measures than do their counterparts not…

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of bilingual and monolingual school on the production of Spanish syntactic structures. The main hypothesis to be tested was that there was no significant difference in the development of Spanish syntactic structures between those children schooled bilingually and those children schooled…

This study presents an intensive comparative analysis of selected basic sentence patterns and transformations in Spanish and English manifested in the responses of Spanish-speaking disadvantaged children selected to receive instruction in the following groups: (1) Oral-Aural Spanish with special science materials in Spanish; (2) Oral-Aural English…