Average change in sentence repetition by Spanish-English speaking children: kindergarten to first grade

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This study aimed to describe change in dual language learners’ (DLLs) morphosyntactic skills from kindergarten to first grade based on a sentence repetition task in English and Spanish.

Methods: The sample included Spanish-English speaking children (n = 25). Investigators employed a repeated measures analysis of variance with one within-subjects effect (time).

Results: Overall there was a significant difference in sentence repetition accuracy between time points showing growth in English (p < .001, d = 1.24), and no significant change in Spanish. Results highlight malleable English grammatical forms (e.g. conditional (if-then); question inversion of auxiliaries; and subordinating conjunctions) and forms that remained challenging for DLLs in first grade (e.g. irregular past).

Conclusion: Findings support the use of a sentence repetition task as a progress monitoring tool for young DLLs. Highlighted grammatical errors may be informative for planning intensified instructional support in kindergarten and first grade.

KEYWORDS:

• English learner
• bilinguals
• Spanish-English speakers
• cultural/linguistic diversity
• syntax
• morphology
• sentence repetition
• English acquisition
• progress monitoring
• language loss

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Kara Ryker and Estrella Rodriguez who were essential in providing research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through [grant number R305A130460] to Florida State University. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.