Applied Psycholinguistics

Table of Contents - 2006 - Volume 27, Issue 02  


Articles

The role of language of instruction and vocabulary in the English phonological awareness of Spanish–English bilingual children

ANDREA ROLLA SAN FRANCISCO a1, MARÍA CARLO a2, DIANE AUGUST a3 and CATHERINE E. SNOW a1c1
a1 Harvard University Graduate School of Education
a2 University of Miami
a3 Center for Applied Linguistics

Abstract

This study explores influences on bilingual children's phonological awareness (PA) performance in English, examining the role of language of instruction and vocabulary. English monolingual and Spanish–English bilingual kindergartners and first graders receiving either English or Spanish literacy instruction were assessed in English PA and in English and Spanish vocabulary, as appropriate. Spanish-instructed bilinguals were more likely than English-instructed bilinguals or English monolinguals to treat diphthongs as two units, reflecting their analysis in Spanish phonology and orthography. Surprisingly, unbalanced bilinguals dominant in either English or Spanish scored better on English PA than children with approximately equal scores on the English and the Spanish vocabulary test. This finding suggests that familiarity with many lexical items within a language constitutes a source of analyzable phonological knowledge.

(Received November 15 2004)
(Accepted August 11 2005)


Correspondence:
c1 Catherine E. Snow, Larsen Hall, Appian Way, Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA 02138. E-mail: snowcat@gse.harvard.edu

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