The Influence of Spanish Vocabulary and Phonemic Awareness on Beginning English Reading Development: A Three-Year (K–2nd) Longitudinal Study

Abstract

This investigation examined the influence of varying levels of Spanish receptive vocabulary and phonemic awareness ability on beginning English vocabulary, phonemic awareness, word reading fluency, and reading comprehension development across kindergarten through second grade. The 80 respondents were Spanish speaking children with no English language skills at the start of kindergarten and varying attainments in Spanish. They were divided into four groups based on Spanish-language ability in receptive vocabulary and phonemic awareness. Analyses of the group’s scores on an array of assessments in English revealed four significant results: (1) the development of English vocabulary favored the groups with at or above Spanish receptive vocabulary, (2) Spanish phonemic awareness helped the acquisition of English phonemic awareness but appeared not to influence other assessment results unless combined with Spanish receptive vocabulary, (3) the advantages of Spanish phonemic awareness in the absence of Spanish receptive vocabulary only applied to English word reading fluency and phonemic awareness and not English vocabulary and comprehension, (4) initial Spanish receptive vocabulary ability had the greatest impact on 2nd-grade reading comprehension. The researchers link the implications and importance of these findings to existing scholarship.