Cross-linguistic differences in the associations between morphological awareness and reading in Spanish and English in young simultaneous bilinguals

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to clarify the relations between morphological awareness and literacy skills in Spanish and English in young simultaneous bilingual learners. Guided by theoretical perspectives on the associations between morphological awareness and word- versus sentence-level literacy skills, and their transfer between bilinguals’ two languages, we asked bilingual children (N = 90; M = 8.07 years old) to complete dual-language literacy assessments. First, we observed cross-linguistic differences in the associations between morphology and reading. In English, morphological awareness was directly related to word reading and reading comprehension, whereas in Spanish, the association with reading comprehension was fully mediated by vocabulary and single word reading. Second, we observed cross-linguistic associations from English word reading to Spanish reading comprehension, and from Spanish reading comprehension to English reading comprehension. Our findings inform bilingual literacy theory by revealing both cross-linguistic differences and bidirectional associations between literacy skills across typologically-distinct orthographies. In particular, children’s word-level skills transferred from the language of schooling (English) into their heritage language (Spanish), and their broader reading comprehension skills transferred from the heritage language to support English. Taken together, these findings support the value of bilingual heritage language maintenance for reading achievement in children’s dominant language of literacy instruction.

KEYWORDS:

• Biliteracy
• heritage languages
• morphological awareness
• reading comprehension
• dual first-language acquisition
• cross-linguistic transfer

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: [Grant Number R01 HD092498].

Notes on contributors

Rebecca A. Marks

Rebecca A. Marks, PhD is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She completed her PhD in Education & Psychology at the University of Michigan. Her work uses behavioral and neuroimaging methods to investigate reading development and disorders across diverse learners.

Xin Sun

Xin Sun received her PhD from the University of Michigan and is now an incoming postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia. Her research uses behavioral and neuroimaging methods to study bilingual child language and literacy acquisition. She is especially interested in how two languages interact in a child’s mind and brain not facilitate their language and reading development.

Eva McAlister López

Eva McAlister López received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Biopsychology, Cognition & Neuroscience. Her thesis focused on the role of morphological awareness in shaping bilingual reading development. She is interested in pursuing future graduate studies in the field of neurolinguistics.

Nia Nickerson

Nia Nickerson is a doctoral student interested in the effects of linguistic diversity, including bilingual and bidialectal experiences, on children’s language and literacy development.

Isabel Hernandez

Isabel Hernandez received her degree from Universidad de las Americas-Puebla UDLAP (Puebla, México). She is interested in cognition, language processing, and brain development.

Valeria C. Caruso

Valeria C. Caruso, PhD is a research investigator at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the neural bases of language production and understanding in children with developmental disorders.

Teresa Satterfield

Teresa Satterfield, PhD is a Professor of Romance Linguistics and is affiliated with the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan. She is the director of the En Nuestra Lengua Literacy and Culture Project, a Saturday academic program for Spanish heritage language speakers, ages 4–10, in Southeast Michigan.

Ioulia Kovelman

Dr. Ioulia Kovelman is faculty in Psychology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Kovelman’s research focuses on bilingual language, literacy, and brain development. As a developmental cognitive neuroscientist, Dr. Kovelman uses behavioral and optical neuroimaging methods (fNIRS) to uncover the universal and language-specific effects of dual-language experiences on learning to read in bilingual children.