Oral language at school entry: dimensionality of speaking and listening skills

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics for all measures (raw scores).

	n	M	SD	Min	Max	Skewness	Kurtosis	Cronbach Alpha
Phonology
Non-words Repetition
Reception	126	6.19	1.71	0	8	− .98	.87	.62
Year 1	123	6.71	1.45	3	8	−1.06	.26	.57
Vocabulary
Receptive Vocabulary
Reception	121	77.55	12.25	41	104	−.28	.24	.92
Year 1	124	89.50	12.80	53	124	−.05	.17	.93
Expressive Vocabulary
Reception	126	25.29	6.27	6	36	−.77	.42	.75
Year 1	123	29.57	5.51	9	40	− 1.09	1.87	.71
Grammar Receptive
Sentence Structure
Reception	126	15.33	3.23	4	22	−.67	1.40	.67
Year 1	124	18.31	2.39	10	22	− .74	.45	.56
Concepts & Following Directions
Reception	126	14.43	3.95	1	21	−.93	1.01	.75
Year 1	124	16.77	3.25	6	22	−1.00	1.67	.74
Grammar Expressive
Word Structure
Reception	126	16.83	4.36	4	24	−.92	.31	.81
Year 1	123	19.19	3.66	8	24	− 1.21	1.12	.79
Sentence Repetition
Reception	125	9.36	2.08	0	11	−2.04	4.80	.77
Year 1	122	10.10	1.62	0	11	−3.37	15.05	.76
Discourse Receptive
Story Comprehension 1
Reception	123	7.27	3.29	0	14	−.17	−.74	.68
Year 1	123	8.68	3.60	0	16	−.20	−.66	.72
Story Comprehension 2
Reception	123	7.67	2.91	0	14	−.21	−44	.72
Year 1	123	9.25	2.86	0	14	−.60	.17	.71
Story Comprehension 3
Reception	123	5.22	2.49	0	11	−.12	−52	.68
Year 1	123	6.80	2.34	0	12	−.24	.14	.57
Discourse Expressive
Story Generation 1
Reception	123	7.15	5.33	0	24	.70	.27	.85
Year 1	123	10.18	5.60	0	25	.07	−.29	.80
Story Generation 2
Reception	123	7.93	3.59	0	17	−.20	.22	.64
Year 1	123	10.34	4.89	0	22	−.25	−.14	.79
Story Generation 3
Reception	123	9.63	5.45	0	24	.22	−.12	.83
Year 1	123	11.85	5.37	0	23	−.40	−.01	.80

Table 2. Correlations between all the variables.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
1. NW Repetition		.22*	.38*	.25*	.30*	.51*	.57*	.23*	.15	.35*	.28*	.24*	.33*
2. Receptive Vocabulary	.25*		.59*	.56*	.60*	.56*	.31*	.45*	.20	.58*	.31*	.55*	.33*
3. Expressive Vocabulary	.23	.54*		.57*	.56*	.65*	.52*	.34*	.17	.56*	.39*	.53*	.38*
4. Sentence Structure	.22*	.49*	.42*		.65*	.57*	.46*	.33*	.09	.47*	.24*	.52*	.21*
5. CFD	.26*	.36*	.56*	.42*		.62*	.55*	.38*	.09	.54*	.27*	.48*	.27*
6. Word Structure	.33*	.45*	.55*	.43*	.62*		.60*	.44*	.20*	.57*	.36*	.56*	.37*
7. Sentence Repetition	.37*	.32*	.55*	.32*	.55*	.46*		.29*	.17*	.41*	.36*	.38*	.31*
8. Story Comprehension 1	.26*	.43*	.41*	.36*	.29*	.43*	.28*		.46*	.64*	.32*	.55*	.33*
9. Story Generation 1	.19*	.34*	.35*	.20*	.14	.30*	.17	.56*		.34*	.35*	.22*	.43*
10. Story Comprehension 2	.27*	.45*	.50*	.34*	.39*	.54*	.40*	.50*	.48*		.32*	.54*	.37*
11. Story Generation 2	.17	.30*	.25*	.15	.14	.31*	.18*	.17	.51*	.42*		.28*	.58*
12. Story Comprehension 3	.22*	.48*	.46*	.44*	.38*	.54*	.29*	.58*	.45*	.57*	.27*		.36*
13. Story Generation 3	.09	.20*	.25*	.09	.14	.23*	.25*	.27*	.54*	.36*	.63*	.30*

NW: Non-Word Repetition subtest; CFD: Concepts and Following Directions.

Upper triangle: Reception; Lower triangle: Year 1. * p < .05.

Figure 1. Alternative CFA models representing the dimensionality of oral language based on language components and/or modalities. (R): Receptive; (E): Expressive.

Figure 1. Continued.

Figure 1. Continued.

Table 3. Model fit statistics for the six alternative CFA models in Reception and Year 1.

	χ^2	df	CFI	TLI	RMSEA [90% CI]	SRMR	AIC	BIC
Reception
A	106.65***	60	.94	.92	.08 [.05-.10]	.06	8281.49	8406.28
B	86.68**	58	.96	.95	.06 [.03-.09]	.05	8265.01	8395.48
C	82.66**	55	.96	.95	.06 [.03-.09]	.05	8266.76	8405.74
D	93.76**	59	.95	.94	.07 [.04-.09]	.05	8270.22	8397.86
E	71.25	57	.98	.97	.05 [.00-.08]	.05	8251.66	8384.96
F	63.09	54	.99	.98	.04 [.00-.07]	.04	8249.12	8390.94
Year 1
A	106.78***	60	.93	.91	.08 [.05-.10]	.06	8106.16	8230.25
B	79.77*	58	.97	.96	.06 [.02-.08]	.05	8085.76	8215.50
C	74.17*	55	.97	.96	.05 [.01-.08]	.05	8086.24	8224.44
D	106.89***	59	.93	.90	.08 [.06-.11]	.06	8107.83	8234.74
E	No convergence
F	No convergence

CFI: Comparative Fit Index; TLI: Tucker-Lewis Index; RMSEA: Root Mean Square Error of Approximation; SRMR: Standardised Root Mean Square Residuals; *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Table 4. Model comparisons (Satorra-Bentler Chi-Square Difference Test).

	A/B	A/C	B/C	A/D	A/E	A/F	D/E	D/F	E/F
Reception	17.09***	22.35***	4.05	10.72**	30.75***	38.68***	19.99***	27.58***	7.57
Year 1	38.42***	36.04***	5.52	.28

**p < .01; ***p < .001.

Figure 2. Best fitting model in Reception: all paths significant at the <.001 level.

Figure 3. Best fitting model in Year 1: all paths significant at the <.001 level.

Socio-demographic characteristics of the schools in the sample.

	IDACI Rank	% FSM	% SEN	% EAL
School 1	16,699	7.9	12.1	16.8
School 2	7604	25.9	24.5	74
School 3	5594	16.2	7.9	39.3
School 4	31,672	5.7	7.5	32.7
School 5	20,068	3.2	10.2	18.3
School 6	4992	16.4	11.4	23
School 7	17,178	13.4	9.4	35
School 8	18,970	8.6	7.1	37.8
School 9	5011	29.8	8.1	49.1

% FSM: Children eligible for Free School Meals; % SEN: Percentage of children eligible for Special Education Needs Support; % EAL: Percentage of children having English as an additional language