Vocabulary and Phonological Abilities Affect Dual Language Learners' Consonant Production Accuracy Within and Across Languages: A Large-Scale Study of 3- to 6-Year-Old Spanish-English Dual Language Learners.

Abstract

Purpose This study examined factors of language ability that predict consonant production accuracy in young Spanish-English dual language learners (DLLs). Method Participants were 695 Latino DLLs, ages 3;0-6;5 (years;months). Single-word productions were elicited using the Bilingual Phonological Assessment (Miccio & Hammer, 2006). Children's consonant productions were assessed using Percentage of Consonants Correct-Revised (PCC-R; Shriberg et al., 1997a). Vocabulary abilities were assessed using the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey-Revised (Woodcock et al., 2005). Multiple linear regression analyses were used to determine the effects of vocabulary abilities and cross-language consonant production abilities on children's consonant production accuracy in each language. Results Large amounts of the variance in PCC-R scores for English (R 2 = .65) and Spanish (R 2 = .43) were predicted by children's age, vocabulary scores within the same language, and PCC-R scores across languages. Conclusion Spanish-English DLLs' consonant production abilities in both languages improve with age between 3;0 and 6;5. DLLs' accuracy in each language is also affected by vocabulary abilities within the same language and by their consonant production abilities in the other language. In particular, children's consonant production abilities in each language were highly predictive of their consonant production abilities in the other language, which suggests that shared phonological skills support their development across languages.