Young Bilingual Children’s Spelling Strategies: A Comparative Study of 6- to 7-Year-Old Bilinguals and Monolinguals

Sofia Guimaraes,Eric Parkins

doi:10.17583/ijep.2019.4099

Abstract

Developing literacy in two languages can be challenging for young bilingual children. This longitudinal study investigates the effects of bilingualism in the spelling strategies of English-Portuguese speaking children. A total of 88 six-to-seven-year-old bilinguals and monolinguals were followed during one academic year and data gathered on a range of verbal and written language skills and non-verbal measures while controlling for SES. For both bilinguals and monolinguals letter knowledge, phonological awareness and word concept were significant predictors of spelling. However, non-verbal reasoning played an increasing role in explaining spelling variance for bilinguals, suggesting that learning to spell in two alphabetic languages places more demands on non-verbal processing skills. Spelling error analyses further revealed that bilinguals when compared to monolinguals showed more reliance on phonological strategies, less compliance with the L1 orthographic system and at times transference from L2. The results suggest important implications for our understanding of spelling acquisition and the development of effective intervention practices for bilingual children.

Highlights

Developing literacy in two languages can be challenging for young bilingual children
The results indicate that monolinguals, when compared to bilinguals, obtained significantly higher results on all spelling measures at all testing times
Group Similarities and Differences: Spelling, Literacy Skills and NonVerbal Reasoning The present findings identify important group similarities and differences in terms of the spelling strategies of bilinguals and monolinguals

Summary

Introduction

Developing literacy in two languages can be challenging for young bilingual children. A total of 88 six-to-seven-yearold bilinguals and monolinguals were followed during one academic year and data gathered on a range of verbal and written language skills and non-verbal measures while controlling for SES For both bilinguals and monolinguals letter knowledge, phonological awareness and word concept were significant predictors of spelling. A combination of quantitative data and spelling error analysis was used to uncover bilinguals’ spelling strategies It extends present research by comparing bilinguals and monolinguals on a range of verbal and written language skills, and on non-verbal measures while controlling for socioeconomic status (SES). Whilst significant variations in literacy skills, such as PA, have been attributed to differences in SES (Chung et al, 2017), past research has often not matched monolingual and bilingual

Methods

Results

Conclusion