Semantic priming and reading skills among Spanish-speaking dual language learners

ABSTRACT

Substantial research among bilingual adults indicates that exposure to words primes other semantically related words within and across languages, as well as the direct translation equivalents [e.g. Chen and Ng 1989. “Semantic Facilitation and Translation Priming Effects in Chinese-English Bilinguals.” Memory & Cognition 17: 454–462]. However, there is less research on semantic and translation priming among bilingual children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate semantic priming effects as an indicator of underlying lexical quality among Spanish-speaking dual language learners (DLLs) in the U.S., including examination of whether semantic and translation priming effects were related to children’s reading-related skills. Ninety-five Spanish-speaking DLLs in second and fourth grade completed an eye-tracking semantic priming task along with measures of English and Spanish reading-related skills. Results indicated that there were consistent translation priming effects, with observed translation priming stronger from English to Spanish than from Spanish to English. Additionally, there were consistent within-English semantic priming effects. Results suggested that semantic priming effects were stronger for children with higher levels of English vocabulary and reading comprehension than they were for children with lower levels of English vocabulary and reading comprehension. Findings are discussed in the context of theoretical models of bilingual language processing, as well as the lexical quality hypothesis [e.g. Perfetti 2007. “Reading Ability: Lexical Quality to Comprehension.” Scientific Studies of Reading 11: 357–383].

KEYWORDS:

• Eye-tracking
• dual language learners
• semantic priming
• reading

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 We inspected the standardized scores for Spanish academic skills of the child whose parents reported he/she spoke only English. Of the three measures, both Spanish reading comprehension and Spanish decoding were higher than the sample mean, and Spanish vocabulary knowledge was below the sample mean but not the lowest of all included participants. Thus, we chose to include this participant’s data in the analysis.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by an internal grant awarded to the first author by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Notes on contributors

J. Marc Goodrich

J. Marc Goodrich is an Assistant Professor of Special Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His research focuses on factors that influence the acquisition of language and literacy skills in young bilingual/multilingual children.

Sergio Leiva

Sergio Leiva is a doctoral student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His primary research interest is in the development of reading skills in native Spanish-speaking children, including children living in different contexts (e.g., developed vs. developing countries).