L1–L2 phonological skills predict L2 early literacy in bilinguals with developmental language disorder

Abstract

In this study, we investigated first- (L1) and second-language (L2) vocabulary and phonology, and selective attention, as precursors of L2 early literacy in bilingual kindergartners with and without Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). We compared typically developing (TD) and DLD bilinguals with TD/DLD monolinguals (n = 157, MAGE = 3;8), and examined how TD/DLD bilinguals' precursor abilities predicted L2 phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and letter knowledge. The precursor variables were assessed during preschool, including L1/L2 Dutch and L1 Turkish/Polish. Two years later, we assessed L2 Dutch early literacy. The results showed that at preschool, DLD bilinguals scored lower than the other groups on L1 vocabulary and L1–L2 phonology. By kindergarten, bilingual and DLD groups had poorer Dutch rhyme and RAN than monolingual and TD groups, respectively. Combined L1–L2 phonological skills predicted phonological awareness and RAN among TD/DLD bilinguals. We conclude that poorer L1–L2 phonology in DLD bilingual preschoolers poses a risk for their L2 early literacy at kindergarten.