Bilingual Reading Research Articles

Moving Forward by Looking Back: Understanding Why Some Spanish-Speaking English Learners Fall Behind.

This study investigated early indicators of Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) at risk for reading difficulties at the end of Grade 2 by examining their early bilingual oral language development, taking into account language of academic instruction. Standardized measures of reading and narrative samples were collected in English and Spanish from kindergarten to Grade 2 from 1,243 ELs primarily instructed in English or Spanish. Conditional growth curve models yielded four primary findings of reading and oral language development. First, ELs with low reading achievement at the end of Grade 2 demonstrated early reading difficulties during kindergarten. Second, although ELs demonstrated overall higher reading achievement in their instructed language, this difference decreased over time. Third, ELs with low reading achievement at the end of Grade 2 demonstrated lower oral language skills in each language over time. Fourth, ELs demonstrated overall higher oral language skills in their instructed language, yet these differences varied over time. The study provided a detailed description of the longitudinal relations among the bilingual reading and oral language skills of Spanish-speaking ELs during the early school years. These findings help to inform the processes of early identification and intervention for Spanish-speaking ELs who are likely to demonstrate reading achievement difficulties.

Bidirectional Cross-Linguistic Association of Phonological Skills and Reading Comprehension: Evidence From Hong Kong Chinese-English Bilingual Readers

This study examined the roles of first-language (L1) Chinese and second-language (L2) English phonological skills in English and Chinese reading comprehension, respectively, and their association with reading comprehension difficulties among Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual children. We tested 258 second graders on nonverbal intelligence, working memory, phonological skills, word reading, and reading comprehension, in both Chinese and English. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that Chinese phonological skills contributed to English reading comprehension both directly and indirectly, through the mediation of English phonological skills and English word reading. In contrast, English phonological skills contributed only indirectly to Chinese reading comprehension through L1 Chinese phonological and word reading skills. Furthermore, poor Chinese readers, poor English readers, and poor readers in both Chinese and English exhibited lower levels of lexical tone awareness than average readers, even after controlling for nonverbal intelligence, word reading, and working memory. Poor Chinese readers outperformed poor English readers and poor readers in both Chinese and English on Chinese segmental phonological awareness, and their performance was comparable to average readers. These findings suggest that both suprasegmental and segmental phonological skills are critical to the development of reading comprehension across L1 Chinese and L2 English in Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual children.

Exploring multicultural books through predictions and social interactions: A case study with kindergarteners in the United States

Although previous studies have underlined the importance of social interactions, multicultural education, prediction/imagination, and bilingual/bi-literacy learning, the intersection of all these four areas is yet to be explored. This qualitative case study explored how young bilingual readers create meanings and develop literary responses through prediction, imagination, and social interaction while reading multicultural literature. As part of a larger longitudinal study, this study focused on kindergarten-age Korean-English bilingual children at a Korean Language School in a Midwestern city in the United States. The data were collected over five months using audio/video recordings, open-ended interviews, and children’s artifacts. The findings suggest that creative participation and social interactions using two languages help young bilingual readers to engage deeply with the reading and encourage multiple perspectives.

Could tDCS Modulate Bilingual Reading?

Could tDCS Modulate Bilingual Reading?

Children, Literacy and Ethnicity: Reading Identities in the Primary School By LexieScherer. UK: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016 ISBN 978‐1‐137‐53736‐2, 189 pp, £89.99 (hb)

This book presents a challenging child-eye view of what it means to be a ‘poor reader’. It specifically provides the views of linguistically diverse and minority ethnic children such as Nicole from Angola, Rahim from Bangladesh, Zora from Morocco, Malik from Iraq, Arvitas from Kosovo and many other children. These pupils range from new arrivals in the UK to those in long-settled communities. For educators and policy-makers, the takeaway learning is that we should listen to the children whom we teach and consider classroom reading from their perspectives. Working in a participative research framework, Lexie Scherer interviewed young children in a super-diverse urban UK primary school. Data illustrate the understandings that the children apply to their school reading, in complex weavings of race, religion, culture, language and ethnicity. The research focus is on picture books and how children ‘read their own concerns into the page’ (p. 106) in terms of images and characters that they consider to be ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and why. It can be uncomfortable for the reader — and for the author/researcher — to hear some children articulate prejudices in response to multicultural picture books, and Scherer reflects honestly on whether some of the children's apparently racist comments mean that they are actually racist children. Beyond the texts, the children are acutely aware of classroom reading hierarchies and peers who are better skilled, ‘more intelligent’ readers. The study reveals how young children from a variety of minority ethnic and linguistic backgrounds respond to the demands put on them by school reading instruction and assessment. It explores how they make sense of what they are given to read in relation to their understanding of themselves and the wider world, and how they self-manage school evaluations of themselves as readers. The book aims to examine the ‘taken for granted’ processes of learning to read, and these processes mainly appear to be the assessment and benchmarking systems. In this sense, Scherer explicitly shows how learning to read in school is an unspoken social, cultural and political process that makes a significant impact on children. The author controversially critiques campaigns and organisations such as the National Literacy Trust and Get London Reading for discourses that ‘race and place’ children, positioning minority status as a causal deficit marker of literacy underachievement, rather than consulting children about their experiences of learning to read. Scherer proposes a ‘Super 7’ set of classroom reading routines which include long-held effective practices such as reading aloud, silent reading, oral storytelling and cultural reading (everything from environmental print to analysing TV programmes and advertising). But there are two standout items in the ‘Super 7’: faith literacy and bilingual reading. Both items receive insufficient attention in primary schools. Most classroom teachers have little or no training in effective support for bilingual children's literacy learning, or how to engage with faith beyond the statutory syllabus and the antiterrorism ‘Prevent’ agenda. The ‘how to’ of the Super 7 is not articulated. Readers must look to programmes such as CLPE's ‘The Power of Reading’, or the ‘Teachers as Readers/Building Communities of Readers’ projects, for ideas on how to improve literacy pedagogy and inclusion in multilingual, multi-ethnic classrooms. Scherer acknowledges ‘informal chats’ with teaching staff and school leaders, but she is committed to foregrounding the voices of children. Her focus makes the salient point that debates about reading are adult-led. The research illustrates, often glaringly, that children in schools cannot alter how reading is taught. They can only succeed or fail within the assessment regime. This study provides, above all, irrefutable evidence that the children of the world are the norm in UK primary schools today. It calls on educators and schools to listen carefully to these children.

Effects of orthographic depth on functional connectivity within reading pathways in proficient bilinguals

Effects of orthographic depth on functional connectivity within reading pathways in proficient bilinguals

Differential impacts of different keyboard inputting methods on reading and writing skills

Nowadays, typewriting has become an important mode of written communication. A report that typewriting may hinder Chinese children’s reading development has sparked substantial concern about whether typing on electronic devices would increase the rate of reading disorders, wherein children used a pronunciation-based input system that associates alphabet letters with phonemes in standard Chinese (Putonghua) and may conflict with the traditional visuomotor-based learning processes for written Chinese. If orthographic-based input methods that require good awareness of the orthographic structure of characters are used, different outcomes might be observed. This study examined the impact of participants’ experience in different typewriting methods on the literacy abilities of fluent Chinese-English bilingual readers. We found that orthographic-based typewriting measures correlated positively with Chinese reading measures, whereas pronunciation-based typewriting measures did not correlate with Chinese reading measures but correlated positively with English reading and spelling performance. Orthographic-based typewriters also performed better than pronunciation-based typewriters in Chinese reading and dictation when their age, typewriting skills and pre-University language ability were statistically controlled. Our findings based on two contrastive writing systems suggest that typewriting methods that tally with the learning principles of a writing system should be used to promote and preserve literacy skills in the digital era.

Correlato neural de la lectura en bilingües

This paper does not intend to carry out a systematic or complete review of the literature, but rather aims to offer a critical view by the authors about the functional brain organization during reading in bilinguals. Firstly, a critical analysis of different theoretical proposals about the reading process is presented, with particular emphasis on the Dual-Route Cascade Model for being the most influential theory in the field. Then, we analize the main theoretical proposals about the neurobiological substrate based mainly on functional neuroimage studies. The main factors that influence this neural correlate during reading in bilinguals are extracted and the findings regarding them of the most recent studies are presented. Finally, a critical analysis is made about the main limitations of the research on this topic and challenges and future research lines in the field are discussed.

Translanguaging and Responsive Assessment Adaptations: Emergent Bilingual Readers through the Lens of Possibility

This study examines how teachers adapt formative reading assessments for emergent bilinguals by making space for their students’ multilingual language practices.

Becoming a Bilingual Reader as Linguistic and Identity Enactments

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Learning to Read Bilingually Modulates the Manifestations of Dyslexia in Adults

ABSTRACTAccording to the Grain Size Accommodation hypothesis (Lallier & Carreiras, 2017), learning to read in two languages differing in orthographic consistency leads to a cross-linguistic modulation of reading and spelling processes. Here, we test the prediction that bilingualism may influence the manifestations of dyslexia. We compared the deficits of English monolingual and early Welsh–English bilingual dyslexic adults on reading and spelling irregular English words and English-like pseudowords. As predicted, monolinguals were relatively more impaired in reading pseudowords than irregular words, whereas the opposite was true for bilinguals. Moreover, monolinguals showed stronger sublexical processing deficits than bilinguals and were poorer spellers overall. This study shows that early bilingual reading experience has long-lasting effects on the manifestations of dyslexia in adulthood. It demonstrates that learning to read in a consistent language like Welsh in addition to English gives bilingual dyslexic adults an advantage in English literacy tasks strongly relying on phonological processing.

Cognitive control ability mediates prediction costs in monolinguals and bilinguals

In this study, we examined the role that cognitive control and language regulation ability play in mediating readers’ susceptibility to prediction error costs when reading in the native language (L1) or a second language (L2). Twenty-four English monolinguals (Experiment 1) and 28 Chinese-English bilinguals (Experiment 2) read sentences in English while their EEG was recorded. The sentences varied in the predictability of an upcoming expected word and in whether that prediction was confirmed. Monolinguals showed sensitivity to sentence contexts in which expectations were not met (i.e., when unexpected words were encountered) in the form of a late, frontally-distributed positivity, but for bilinguals this effect was more complex. For both groups, performance on the prediction task was modulated by individual differences on the AX-CPT, a measure of inhibitory control. However, the bilinguals' reading performance in the L2 was affected not only by inhibitory control, but also by their performance on an L1 verbal fluency task that indexed language regulation and production capability, related to their language dominance and immersion context. Bilinguals with better regulation of the L1 generated a larger frontal positivity in response to unexpected words in the L2, an effect that was attenuated by inhibitory control ability. In contrast, bilinguals with lower regulatory ability generated a larger, late negativity, which was also mediated by control. These findings suggest that the ability to regulate the native language when immersed in a second language environment can influence mechanisms underlying the prediction process when reading in the L2. In addition, cognitive control ability, specifically inhibitory control, appears to mediate the difficulty readers incur when predictions are disconfirmed, not only in the native language, but also for proficient bilinguals reading in the L2. We argue that the mechanisms engaged during prediction in the L1 and L2 are fundamentally the same, and that what differs for bilinguals are the additional demands imposed by their language experience and language use.

Deconstructing and reconstructing cross-language transfer in bilingual reading development: An interactive framework

Abstract The concept of cross-language transfer is central in bilingual reading development. This is because researchers and educators search for the conditions that allow learning that takes place in one language to enhance learning in the other language (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). In the past, the research focus was primarily on cross-language transfer in spoken language. However, since the 90s, cross-language transfer has been studied in relation to literacy aspects, such as word reading, spelling, reading comprehension, and writing. One can find several useful cross-language transfer frameworks in the literature: the contrastive-typological framework (Lado, 1964), the linguistic interdependence framework (Cummins, 1981), the common underlying cognitive process (Geva & Ryan, 1993), and the transfer facilitation model (Koda, 2008). Many studies on L2 transfer have been situated in one of these frameworks, though some treat them as complementary in nature. In what follows, we first briefly describe the core characteristics of each framework. We then present a systematic review of the empirical studies that have been conducted to examine cross-language transfer. Finally, based on the available theoretical and empirical evidence, we propose an interactive framework in an attempt to capture the complex linguistic and cognitive processes involved in cross-language transfer.

Cross‐lagged panel analysis of reciprocal effects of morphological processing and reading in Chinese in a multilingual context

BackgroundWhile much is known about how morphological awareness (MA) contributes to reading development, little attention has been paid to how reading may conversely affect MA development, particularly in readers of Chinese in a bilingual/multilingual setting.MethodsThe study adopted a cross‐lagged panel design. Young bilingual readers of Chinese were measured in MA, word reading and reading comprehension – all in Chinese – twice from Grade 3 to Grade 4.ResultsPath analysis revealed that Grade 3 MA significantly predicted Grade 4 reading comprehension after controlling for the autoregressive effect. Over and above Grade 3 MA, Grade 3 reading also significantly predicted Grade 4 MA. Subsequent analyses, however, revealed disparate developmental patterns between those with Chinese and English, respectively, as their home language.ImplicationsThese findings, while supporting reciprocity of developmental relationships between MA and reading, also suggested that the pattern of relationships can vary as a function of students' target language experiences in a bilingual/multilingual setting.

Lexical entrenchment and cross-language activation: Two sides of the same coin for bilingual reading across the adult lifespan

We used eye movement measures of paragraph reading to examine whether two consequences of bilingualism, namely, reduced lexical entrenchment (i.e., reduced lexical quality and accessibility arising from less absolute language experience) and cross-language activation (i.e., simultaneous co-activation of target- and non-target-language lexical representations) interact during word processing in bilingual younger and older adults. Specifically, we focused on the interaction between word frequency (a predictor of lexical entrenchment) and cross-language neighborhood density (a predictor of cross-language activation) during first- and second-language reading. Across both languages and both age groups, greater cross-language (and within-language) neighborhood density facilitated word processing, indexed by smaller word frequency effects. Moreover, word frequency effects and, to a lesser extent, cross-language neighborhood density effects were larger in older versus younger adults, potentially reflecting age-related changes in lexical accessibility and cognitive control. Thus, lexical entrenchment and cross-language activation multiplicatively influence bilingual word processing across the adult lifespan.

Transculturation in the Chicana Women Writers Prose: Gloria Anzaldúa and Margarita Cota-Cárdenas

The aim of this paper is to discuss the concept of transculturation on the basis of Chicana literature created in the American Southwest. First, the historical, social and cultural context of the Chicana culture formation in the Mexican-American border space is explained. Secondly, transculturation is presented as a European and a genuine Latin American concept of local cultural hybridity, with the emphasis put on the contributions by Wolfgang Welsch and Fernando Ortiz. Thirdly, a general characteristic of Chicana literature is provided, with a special attention paid to linguistic and cultural identity issues. In the analysis of the discursive strategies used by Chicana women writers, two fundamental hybrid Chicana texts are taken into consideration: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/ La Frontera and Margarita Cota-Cárdenas’s Puppet. The analysis reveals that code-switching and interlinguistic translations are the basic forms of character construction and explain the complex situation of the Mexican minority in the USA. Finally, both texts seem to require a hybrid bilingual reader due to their heterogeneous bilingual form and subjects treated.

Attentional asymmetry between visual hemifields is related to habitual direction of reading and its implications for debate on cause and effects of dyslexia

A major controversy regarding dyslexia is whether any of the many visual and phonological deficits found to be correlated with reading difficulty cause the impairment or result from the reduced amount of reading done by dyslexics. We studied this question by comparing a visual capacity in the left and right visual hemifields in people habitually reading scripts written right-to-left or left-to-right. Selective visual attention is necessary for efficient visual search and also for the sequential recognition of letters in words. Because such attentional allocation during reading depends on the direction in which one is reading, asymmetries in search efficiency may reflect biases arising from the habitual direction of reading. We studied this by examining search performance in three cohorts: (a) left-to-right readers who read English fluently; (b) right-to-left readers fluent in reading Farsi but not any left-to-right script; and (c) bilingual readers fluent in English and in Farsi, Arabic, or Hebrew. Left-to-right readers showed better search performance in the right hemifield and right-to-left readers in the left hemifield, but bilingual readers showed no such asymmetries. Thus, reading experience biases search performance in the direction of reading, which has implications for the cause and effect relationships between reading and cognitive functions.

Lexical quality and executive control predict children\u2019s first and second language reading comprehension

This study compared how lexical quality (vocabulary and decoding) and executive control (working memory and inhibition) predict reading comprehension directly as well as indirectly, via syntactic integration, in monolingual and bilingual fourth grade children. The participants were 76 monolingual and 102 bilingual children (mean age 10 years, SD = 5 months) learning to read Dutch in the Netherlands. Bilingual children showed lower Dutch vocabulary, syntactic integration and reading comprehension skills, but better decoding skills than their monolingual peers. There were no differences in working memory or inhibition. Multigroup path analysis showed relatively invariant connections between predictors and reading comprehension for monolingual and bilingual readers. For both groups, there was a direct effect of lexical quality on reading comprehension. In addition, lexical quality and executive control indirectly influenced reading comprehension via syntactic integration. The groups differed in that inhibition more strongly predicted syntactic integration for bilingual than for monolingual children. For a subgroup of bilingual children, for whom home language vocabulary data were available (n = 56), there was an additional positive effect of home language vocabulary on second language reading comprehension. Together, the results suggest that similar processes underlie reading comprehension in first and second language readers, but that syntactic integration requires more executive control in second language reading. Moreover, bilingual readers additionally benefit from first language vocabulary to arrive at second language reading comprehension.

Parallel semantic processing in reading revisited: effects of translation equivalents in bilingual readers

ABSTRACTPrevious research has failed to establish semantic parafoveal-on-foveal effects during reading. As an explanation, we theorise that sentence reading engages a sentence-level representation that prevents semantic parafoveal-foveal integration. Putting this account to the test, we examined parafoveal-foveal influences both in- and outside a sentence reading setting. Optimising chances of establishing parafoveal-on-foveal effects, we used translation-equivalent word pairs with French-English bilingual participants. Experiment 1 provided no evidence for semantic parafoveal-on-foveal integration during sentence reading, but some evidence that semantic information had been extracted in parallel from multiple words. Experiments 2 and 3 employed a flanker paradigm in which participants semantically categorised English foveal target words, while these were flanked by the French translation or an unrelated French word (stimulus on-time 170 ms). Performance was drastically better with translation flankers, suggesting that readers can integrate semantic information across multiple words when the task does not require a strict separation of higher-order information.

Within- and cross-language contributions of morphological awareness to word reading development in Chinese–English bilingual children

A growing body of cross-linguistic research has suggested that morphological awareness plays a key role in both L1 and L2 word reading among bilingual readers. However, little is known about the interaction and development of L1 and L2 morphological awareness in relation to word reading. We addressed this issue by evaluating the unique contributions of L1 Chinese and L2 English morphological awareness to word reading in both Chinese and English across Grades 2 (N = 150), 5 (N = 158), and 8 (N = 159) Hong Kong Chinese–English bilingual children. Children completed five tasks of Chinese morphological awareness which tapped for compounding awareness, homophone awareness, homographic awareness, semantic radical awareness, and affix awareness, and six English morphological judgment and analogy tasks that assessed morphological awareness at three levels: inflection, derivation, and compounding. English phonological awareness, Chinese and English vocabulary, and nonverbal ability were measured as controls. Word reading was assessed in both languages. Within-language analyses revealed that Chinese morphological awareness accounted for 27, 22, and 12% of unique variances in Chinese word reading above the control measures in Grades 2, 5, and 8 respectively. In contrast, English morphological awareness explained small but significant unique variances in English word reading, i.e., 4, 8, and 2%, across Grades 2, 5, and 8 respectively. Critically, there were cross-language influences: Chinese morphological awareness explained 4% of unique variance in English word reading in Grade 2 after controlling for IQ, English vocabulary, English phonological awareness, and English morphological awareness; English morphological awareness explained significant variances in Chinese word reading, i.e., 4, 3, and 4% in Grades 2, 5, and 8 respectively, after the relevant controls. These findings suggest a bi-directional cross-language transfer of morphological awareness to word reading in L1 Chinese and L2 English. However, the direction of its transfer may be constrained by some language-specific morphological features.