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The role of home literacy and language environment on bilinguals' English and Spanish vocabulary development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2007

ELISABETH DUURSMA ,
SILVIA ROMERO-CONTRERAS ,
ANNA SZUBER ,
PATRICK PROCTOR ,
CATHERINE SNOW ,
DIANE AUGUST  and
MARGARITA CALDERÓN
ELISABETH DUURSMA
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education
SILVIA ROMERO-CONTRERAS
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education
ANNA SZUBER
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education
PATRICK PROCTOR
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education
CATHERINE SNOW
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education
DIANE AUGUST
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Linguistics
MARGARITA CALDERÓN
Affiliation:
CRESPAR
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Abstract

For the monolingual population, research has shown that vocabulary knowledge is closely related to reading achievement. However, the role of vocabulary has not been studied as extensively in the bilingual population. It is important to look at vocabulary to better understand reading achievement in the bilingual population in the United States. This study investigated the predictors of Spanish and English vocabulary for 96 fifth-grade Latino English language learners. Our results suggest that becoming or staying proficient in English did not require parental use of English in the home. However, proficiency in Spanish required both instructional support at school and social support at home; it is likely that the low social status of Spanish is related to its greater dependence on home support.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , January 2007 , pp. 171 - 190
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

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