ERIC Number: EJ1345158
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1367-0050
EISSN: EISSN-1747-7522
Available Date: N/A
Speech and Language Outcomes in Low-SES Spanish-English Bilingual Preschoolers: The Role of Maternal Education
Montanari, Simona; Mayr, Robert; Subrahmanyam, Kaveri
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, v25 n5 p1590-1608 2022
This paper presents a longitudinal examination of Spanish and English phonological, lexical, and morpho-syntactic abilities in 20 low-SES bilingual preschoolers with mothers who had either completed primary or secondary education in Spanish in their country of origin, Mexico. We focused on the link between maternal education and the following spontaneous production measures: (1) phonological accuracy as measured by Percent of Consonants Correct-Revised, (2) lexical variety as measured by Number of Different Words, and (3) utterance length as measured by Mean Length of Utterance in words; the relation between maternal education and spontaneous production was examined both (a) at preschool entry, when children were on average 3;6, and (b) a year later, after one year of exposure to the majority language (English) and culture. The results showed that although children of more educated mothers performed significantly better on all English measures than children of less educated mothers, maternal education was not related to Spanish outcomes. The same differences persisted a year later. These results suggest that maternal education may play a different, but long-lasting role in English compared to Spanish development possibly due to language input differences attributable to distinct cultural values and practices associated with different languages.
Descriptors: Bilingualism, Preschool Children, Mothers, Educational Attainment, Parent Background, Spanish, English, Correlation, Phonological Awareness, Language Usage, Vocabulary, Cultural Influences, Age Differences, Accuracy, Language Skills
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) (DHHS/NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: 5SC3GM8475833
Author Affiliations: N/A