Abstract
Cross-linguistic influences (CLI) in first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) reading have been widely demonstrated in experimental paradigms with adults at the word and sentence levels. However, less is known about CLI in adolescents during naturalistic text reading. Through eye-tracking and behavioral measures, this study investigated expository reading in functionally English monolingual and Spanish (L1) - English (L2) bilingual adolescents. In particular, we examined the role of L1 (Spanish) sentence integration skills among the bilingual adolescents when L2 school texts contained challenging syntactic structures, such as complex clauses, elaborated noun phrases, and anaphoric references. Results of generalized multilevel linear regression modeling demonstrated CLI in both offline comprehension and online eye-tracking measures that were modulated by school text characteristics. We found a positive relationship (i.e., facilitation) between L1 sentence integration skills and L2 English text comprehension, especially for passages with greater clause complexity. Similar main, but not modulatory, effects of sentence integration skill were found in online eye-tracking measures. Overall, both language groups appeared to draw upon similar reading component skills to support reading fluency and comprehension when component skills were measured only in English. However, differential patterns of association across languages became evident when those skills were measured in both L1 and L2. Taken together, our findings suggest that bilingual adolescents’ engagement of cross-linguistic resources in expository reading varies dynamically according to both language-specific semantic knowledge and language-general sentence integration skills, and is modulated by text features, such as syntactic complexity.
Highlights
Reading and comprehending complex connected school texts can be challenging for both firstlanguage (L1) (Cain and Oakhill, 2004; Lervåg et al, 2018) and second-language (L2) (Lesaux, et al, 2006; Melby-Lervåg and Lervåg, 2014) learners
The current study focuses on Cross-linguistic influences (CLI) in sentence-level integration, examining how L1 (Spanish) sentence integration abilities during L2 (English) text reading in SpanishEnglish bilingual adolescents are associated with both online text processing efficiency and offline text comprehension with their functional monolingual peers who spoke and read primarily only in English
The final sample included 59 participants; three were excluded due to eye-tracking issues and another three were excluded due to low nonverbal reasoning scores, which can influence reading comprehension outcomes (Quinn and Wagner, 2018)
Summary
Reading and comprehending complex connected school texts can be challenging for both firstlanguage (L1) (Cain and Oakhill, 2004; Lervåg et al, 2018) and second-language (L2) (Lesaux, et al, 2006; Melby-Lervåg and Lervåg, 2014) learners. Text Complexity and CLI and Stafura, 2014). Cummins’ (1979) early Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis proposed a common underlying linguistic proficiency that would allow bilinguals to transfer linguistic skills across languages given sufficient L1 proficiency. This hypothesis proposes that in addition to their emerging L2 abilities, young bilinguals draw upon L1 knowledge and skills in developing L2 literacy
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