Oral narrative retelling among emergent bilinguals in a dual language immersion program

Abstract

ABSTRACTOral narrative retelling is a complex linguistic and cognitive task that has been shown to map onto reading fluency and comprehension. Therefore, it is important to understand oral retelling skill, especially among emergent bilingual children – those who are learning two languages simultaneously. In this article, exploratory quantitative and qualitative findings from a study investigating the bilingual narrative retelling abilities of young heritage Spanish-speaking emergent bilingual children are reported. Kindergarten, first, and second grade children (N = 65) were assessed in each language separately using comparable wordless picture books, and their performance within and across languages was investigated. Two findings emerged: (1) children’s performance on retelling was significantly related across languages; but (2) individual children exhibited different patterns of bilingual strengths and challenges. These findings underscore the value of conducting academic oral assessments in both languages. In particular, the oral language proficiency of some children would be underestimated if their performance in only one language was considered. Implications for instruction and assessment are discussed.