Effects of Home Language, Oral Language Skills, and Cross-Linguistic Phonological Abilities on Whole-Word Proximity in Spanish-English–Speaking Children

Abstract

Purpose This study examined language use and language ability factors that predict phonological whole-word proximity in young Spanish-English–speaking children. Method Participants were 199 Latino children aged 3;0–6;6 (years;months) and their mothers. Children's speech sound production in English and Spanish was assessed using the Bilingual Phonological Assessment ( Miccio & Hammer, 2006 ). Vocabulary and story retell abilities were assessed using the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey–Revised ( Woodcock, Muñoz-Sandoval, Ruef, & Alvarado, 2005 ), and information regarding the children's exposure to and use of English and Spanish was collected by means of a parent survey. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine the degree to which exposure to and use of each language in the home, oral language abilities, and phonological proficiency as measured by the proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP; Ingram, 2002 ) in the other language were able to predict the PWP scores in English and Spanish. Results A large portion of the variance in English and Spanish PWP scores ( R 2 = .66 and .51, respectively) was predicted by the language children use when communicating with their mothers, children's vocabulary scores, and children's PWP scores in the other language. Conclusion Language use, vocabulary, and phonological whole-word proximity in the other language are significant factors in predicting bilingual children's whole-word proximity in English and Spanish. Children's phonological abilities in one language are highly predictive of those same abilities in the other, suggesting underlying shared phonological skills across languages.