Bilingualism and Reading in a Native Language By

Bilingualism and Reading in a Native Language By Stacy Colwell

Foreign Language: A valuable commodity • Increased pressure to keep up with educational systems of Asia and Europe • Growing number of non-native English speakers in the United States

Problem • Not enough foreign language instruction to compete globally • Language programs begin too late in school to result in language proficiency • Increased pressure to produce in standardized tests – Does learning a foreign language negatively affect reading ability in the native language?

Research Questions 1. What is the relationship between the acquisition of a second language for native English speakers and reading ability in the native language?   2. Do middle school foreign language students score higher on standardized tests in reading than their monolingual counterparts?

Significance of Study Determine whether or not foreign language negatively affects reading ability • Increase communication • Compete on a global level • Save time, energy, and money

Literature Review • BIA+ Model – distinct word identification and task/decision systems • language is nonselective • bottom-up processing (Dijkstra & Van Heuven, 2002; Titone et al. , 2011; Lagrou, Hartsuiker & Duyck, 2011) • Supported by f. MRI and ERP imaging techniques (Van Heuven & Dijkstra, 2010)

Literature Review (cont’d) • Second language alters the highly automated skill of reading comprehension in the native language (Van Assche et al. , 2009) • Presence of cognates increases rate of word recognition (Van Assche et al. , 2011) • Bilinguals faster and more efficient in Attentional Network Task and better with conflicting information (Costa, 2008)

Research Methods • Quantitative Nonrandomized Control Group Pretest-Postest Design • Students from two similar middle schools – Geographic location – History of similar standardized test scores – Demographics • Longitudinal Study

Research Methods Group 1 (control) • Pretest • Standard curriculum without foreign language instruction • Monitor yearly progress Group 2 (treatment) • Pretest • Foreign language instruction starting in 6 th grade • Monitor yearly progress

Data Collection • At the end of each school year – Standardized test scores in reading • CRCT - Reading • EOCT - 9 th Grade Lit / American Literature (reading and literature; reading, listening, speaking and viewing across the curriculum) • Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) test (Carver, 1992)

References Ameel, E. , Malt, B. C. , Storms, G. , & Van Assche, F. (2009). Semantic convergence in the bilingual lexicon. Journal of Memory and Language, 60(2), 270 -290. Carver, R. P. (1992). What do standardized tests of reading comprehension measure in terms of efficiency, accuracy, and rate? Reading Research Quarterly, 27(4), 347 -359. Costa, A. , Hernández, M. , & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2008). Bilingualism aids conflict resolution: Evidence from the ANT task. Cognition, 106(1), 59 -86. Dijkstra, T. & Van Heuven, W. J. B. (2002). The architecture of the bilingual word recognition system: From identification to decision. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 5(1), 175 -197. Hale, Andrea D. Henning, Jaime B. Hawkins, Renee O. Sheeley, Wesley. Shoemaker, Larissa. Reynolds, Jennifer R. Moch, Christina. (2011). Reading assessment methods for middle-school students: An investigation of reading comprehension rate and maze accurate response rate. Psychology in the Schools, 48(1), 28 -36.

References (cont’d) Kang, J. Y. (2012). Do bilingual children possess better phonological awareness? investigation of korean monolingual and korean-english bilingual children. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 25(2), 411 -431. Kieffer, M. J. , & Lesaux, N. K. (2012). Knowledge of words, knowledge about words: Dimensions of vocabulary in first and second language learners in sixth grade. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 25(2), 347 -373. Lagrou, E. , Hartsuiker, R. J. , & Duyck, W. (2011). Knowledge of a second language influences auditory word recognition in the native language. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory & Cognition, 37(4), 952 -965. Lorenzo, F. , Moore, P. , & Casal, S. (2011). On complexity in bilingual research: The causes, effects, and breadth of content and language integrated learning--A reply to bruton (2011). Applied Linguistics, 32(4), 450 -455. Slavin, R. E. , & Cheung, A. (2005). A synthesis of research on language of reading instruction for english language learners. Review of Educational Research, 75(2), 247 -284.

References (cont’d) Tahan, S. , Cline, T. , & Messaoud-Galusi, S. (2011). The relationship between language dominance and pre-reading skills in young bilingual children in egypt. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 24(9), 1061 -1087. Titone, D. , Libben, M. , Mercier, J. , Whitford, V. , & Pivneva, I. (2011). Bilingual lexical access during L 1 sentence reading: The effects of L 2 knowledge, semantic constraint, and L 1 -L 2 intermixing. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory & Cognition, 37(6), 1412 -1431. Van Assche, E. , Drieghe, D. , Duyck, W. , Welvaert, M. , & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2011). The influence of semantic constraints on bilingual word recognition during sentence reading. Journal of Memory and Language, 64(1), 88 -107. Van Assche, Eva. Duyck, Wouter. Hartsuiker, Robert J. Diependaele, Kevin. (2009). Does bilingualism change native-language reading? cognate effects in a sentence context. Psychological Science (Wiley-Blackwell), 20(8), 923 -927. Van Heuven, W. J. B. , & Dijkstra, T. (2010). Language comprehension in the bilingual brain: FMRI and ERP support for psycholinguistic models. Brain Research Reviews, 64(1), 104 -122.