Young Bilingual Children’s Spelling Strategies: A Comparative Study of 6- to 7-Year-Old Bilinguals and Monolinguals

Authors

https://doi.org/10.17583/ijep.2019.4099

Keywords:


Downloads

Abstract

Developing literacy in two languages can be challenging for young bilingual children. This longitudinal study investigates the effects of bilingualism in the spelling strategies of English-Portuguese speaking children. A total of 88 six-to-seven-year-old bilinguals and monolinguals were followed during one academic year and data gathered on a range of verbal and written language skills and non-verbal measures while controlling for SES.  For both bilinguals and monolinguals letter knowledge, phonological awareness and word concept were significant predictors of spelling. However, non-verbal reasoning played an increasing role in explaining spelling variance for bilinguals, suggesting that learning to spell in two alphabetic languages places more demands on non-verbal processing skills. Spelling error analyses further revealed that bilinguals when compared to monolinguals showed more reliance on phonological strategies, less compliance with the L1 orthographic system and at times transference from L2. The results suggest important implications for our understanding of spelling acquisition and the development of effective intervention practices for bilingual children.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Sofia Guimaraes, University of Roehampton, London, UK

Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies

Eric Parkins

Educational psychologist, researcher and author

 

References

Arab-Moghaddam, N. & Senechal, M (2001). Orthographic and phonological processing skills in reading and spelling in Persian/English bilinguals. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 25, 140-147.

Google Scholar Crossref

Bialystok, E. (2017) The bilingual adaption: how minds accommodate experience. Psychological Bulletin, 143, 3, 233-262.

Google Scholar Crossref

Calvo, A. & Bialystok, E. (2014) Independent effects of bilingualism and socioeconomic status on language ability and executive functioning. Cognition, 130, 278-288.

Google Scholar Crossref

Cassar, M. and Treiman, R. (1997). The beginnings of orthographic knowledge: children’s knowledge of double letters in words. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 631-644.

Google Scholar Crossref

Deacon, H., Chen, X., Luo. Y. & Ramirez, G. (2013) Beyond language borders: orthographic processing and word reading in Spanish-English bilinguals. Journal of Research in Reading, 36, 58-74.

Google Scholar Crossref

Defior, S., Martos, F. & Cary, L. (2002) Differences in reading acquisition development in two shallow orthographies that differ in their degree of orthographic consistency: Portuguese and Spanish. Applied Linguistics, 23, 135-148.

Google Scholar Crossref

Dixon, Q., Zhao, J. & Joshi, M. (2010) Influence of L1 Orthography on Spelling English Words by Bilingual Children: A Natural Experiment Comparing Syllabic, Phonological, and Morphosyllabic First Languages. Learning Disability Quarterly, 33, 211-221

Google Scholar Crossref

Dunn, L. & Dunn, L. (1981). The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Form L (Revised). Minnesota: Circle Pines.

Google Scholar Crossref

Dunn, L., Pantille, D. & Whetton, C. (1982). The British Picture Vocabulary Scale. Windsor: NFER-Nelson.

Google Scholar Crossref

Elliot, C. (1996). The British Ability Scales II. NFER-Nelson.

Google Scholar Crossref

Grosjean, F. (2010) Bilingual. Life and reality. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Google Scholar Crossref

Kahn-Horwitz, J. Schwartz, M. & Share, D. (2011). Acquiring the complex English orthography: A tri-literacy advantage? Journal of Research in Reading, 34(1), 136-156.

Google Scholar Crossref

Kang, J. (2012) Do bilingual children possess better phonological awareness? Investigation of Korean monolingual and Korean-English bilingual children. Reading and Writing, 25, 2, 411-431.

Google Scholar Crossref

Mayec, P., Crowley, K. & Kaminska, Z (2007). Reading and spelling processes in Welsh-English bilinguals: Differential effects of concurrent vocalisation tasks. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 20, 671-690.

Google Scholar Crossref

Mayhew, D. (1977) An investigation to determine factors affecting selected kindergarten children’s invented spelling. University of Georgia, Dissertation abstracts International, 1978, 38, 39998A.

Google Scholar Crossref

Melby-Lervag, M., (2011) Cross-linguistic transfer of oral language, decoding, phonological awareness and reading comprehension: a meta-analysis of the correlational evidence. Journal of Research in Reading, 34, 1, 114-135.

Google Scholar Crossref

Mishra, R. & Singh, N. (2014) Non-selective activation of orthography during word processing in Hindi-English sequential bilinguals: an eye tracking visual word study. Reading and Writing, 27, 129-151.

Google Scholar Crossref

Norton, E., Kovelman, J & Petitto, L. (2007) Are there separate neural systems for spelling? New insights into the role of rules and memory in spelling. Mind brain Education, 1, 48-59.

Google Scholar Crossref

Olulade, O., Jamal, N., Koo, D., Perfetti, C., LaSasso, C. & Eden, G. (2015) Neuroanatomical evidence in support of the bilingual advantage theory. Cerebral Cortex, 1-9.

Google Scholar Crossref

Raynolds, L. & Uhry, J. (2010) The invented spellings of non-Spanish phonemes by Spanish-English bilingual and English monolingual kindergarteners. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 23, 495-513.

Google Scholar Crossref

Read, C. (1975) Children’s categorizations of speech sounds in English. Urbana, Ill: National Council of Teachers of English.

Google Scholar Crossref

Read, C (1986) Children’s creative spelling. London: Routledge.

Google Scholar Crossref

Sparks, R., Patton, J. Ganschow, L. & Humbach, N. (2008). Early first-language reading and spelling skills. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 162-174.

Google Scholar Crossref

Stage, S. and Wagner, R. (1992). Development of young children’s phonological and orthographic knowledge as revealed by their spellings. Developmental Psychology, 28, 287-296.

Google Scholar Crossref

Standard Occupational Classification 2000 (SOC2000). Office for National Statistics, UK.

Google Scholar Crossref

Steffler, D., Varnhagen, C. and Friesen, C. Treiman, R. (1998) There's More to Children's Spelling Than the Errors They Make: Strategic and Automatic Processes for One-Syllable Words. Journal of Educational Psychology. 90, 3,492-505.

Google Scholar Crossref

Sun-Aperin, K and Wang, M. (2011) Cross-language transfer of phonological and orthographic processing skills from Spanish L1 to English L2. Reading and Writing, 24, 5, 591-614.

Google Scholar Crossref

Treiman, R. (1993). Beginning to Spell: A Study of First-Grade Children. New York: Oxford University Press.

Google Scholar Crossref

Treiman, R. & Bourassa (2000) The development of spelling skills. Topics in Language Disorders, 20, 1-18.

Google Scholar Crossref

Treiman, R., Stohand, S. & Snowling, M. (2013). Instruction matters: Spelling of vowels by children in England and the US. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 26, 473-487.

Google Scholar Crossref

Vale, A. P. (2011) Orthographic context sensitivity in vowel decoding by Portuguese monolingual and Portuguese-English bilingual children. Journal of Research in Reading, 34, 1, 43-58.

Google Scholar Crossref

Van Heuven, W., Schieefers, H., Dijkstra, T. & Hagoort, P. (2008) Language conflict in the bilingual brain. Cerebral Cortex, 11, 2706-2716.

Google Scholar Crossref

Woumans, E. (2015) Effects of bilingualism on cognition. Doctor in de Psychologie. Universiteit Gent.

Google Scholar Crossref

Yeong, S., Fletcher, J. & Bayliss, D. (2014) Importance of phonological and orthographic skills for English reading and spelling: A comparison of Enhlish monolingual and Mandarin-English bilingual children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106, 4, 1107-1121.

Google Scholar Crossref

Downloads

Published

2019-10-24

Almetric

Dimensions

How to Cite

Guimaraes, S., & Parkins, E. (2019). Young Bilingual Children’s Spelling Strategies: A Comparative Study of 6- to 7-Year-Old Bilinguals and Monolinguals. International Journal of Educational Psychology, 8(3), 216–245. https://doi.org/10.17583/ijep.2019.4099

Issue

Section

Articles