Cross-linguistic differences in the associations between morphological awareness and reading in Spanish and English in young simultaneous bilinguals

• Published in: International journal of bilingual education and bilingualism Vol. 25; no. 10; pp. 3907 - 3923
• Main Authors: Marks, Rebecca A., Sun, Xin, McAlister López, Eva, Nickerson, Nia, Hernandez, Isabel, Caruso, Valeria C., Satterfield, Teresa, Kovelman, Ioulia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Routledge 2022; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Bilingualism; Biliteracy; Case Studies; Children; Correlation; cross-linguistic transfer; dual first-language acquisition; Elementary School Students; English (Second Language); English language; Heritage Education; Heritage language; heritage languages; Intelligence Tests; Language; Language Acquisition; Language Classification; Language Dominance; Language Maintenance; Language Proficiency; Language Tests; Language typology; Language Usage; Linguistics; Literacy; Metalinguistics; morphological awareness; Morphological processing; Morphology; Morphology (Languages); Native Language; Orthography; Phonological Awareness; Reading Achievement; Reading Comprehension; Reading Tests; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Spanish; Spanish language; Surveys; Transfer of Training; Verbal Ability; Vocabulary; Vocabulary Skills; dual first-language acquisition; heritage languages; morphological awareness; reading comprehension; Biliteracy; cross-linguistic transfer
• ISSN: 1367-0050; 1747-7522
• DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2022.2090226

This study aimed to clarify the relations between morphological awareness and literacy skills in Spanish and English in young simultaneous bilingual learners. Guided by theoretical perspectives on the associations between morphological awareness and word- versus sentence-level literacy skills, and their transfer between bilinguals' two languages, we asked bilingual children (N = 90; M = 8.07 years old) to complete dual-language literacy assessments. First, we observed cross-linguistic differences in the associations between morphology and reading. In English, morphological awareness was directly related to word reading and reading comprehension, whereas in Spanish, the association with reading comprehension was fully mediated by vocabulary and single word reading. Second, we observed cross-linguistic associations from English word reading to Spanish reading comprehension, and from Spanish reading comprehension to English reading comprehension. Our findings inform bilingual literacy theory by revealing both cross-linguistic differences and bidirectional associations between literacy skills across typologically-distinct orthographies. In particular, children's word-level skills transferred from the language of schooling (English) into their heritage language (Spanish), and their broader reading comprehension skills transferred from the heritage language to support English. Taken together, these findings support the value of bilingual heritage language maintenance for reading achievement in children's dominant language of literacy instruction.