Cross-Linguistic Transfer of Phonological Processing: Development of a Measure of Phonological Processing in Spanish

Abstract

Recent research suggests that phonological processing deficits, including the awareness of sounds in words or phonemic awareness, are predictive of difficulties in learning to read and reading fluency in English. As research in this area has increased, so has the number of measures with which to measure phonological processing in English. Increasing numbers of children in schools today speak Spanish as their first or only language, and the teaching and assessment of literacy and pre-literacy skills is of concern with these children. The purpose of this study was to develop a measure of phonological processing in Spanish (Conciencia Fonológica en Español or CFE). The measure was developed based on research that is available in English and then piloted with children in a bilingual program to examine the reliability and validity of the scores obtained on this measure. Results support the utility of the test in measuring a developmental process; internal reliability and test-retest reliability are adequate. Correlations with a comparable measure in English are in the moderate range supporting construct validity of the CFE. Regression analyses suggest that phonological processing in Spanish as measured by the subtests of the CFE is predictive of reading fluency in Spanish as well as reading fluency in English. Implications and future areas of research are discussed.