Validating new measures of later language development for Spanish-English bilinguals

良好的语言技能是识字能力发展的基础。这个项目调查了 语法发展与9至10岁单语西班牙语的识字发展有关， 单语英语和西班牙-英语双语儿童对复合体理解的评估 通过在学校增加接触书面语言而掌握的语法结构。适当地 测量儿童后来的语法发展，我们需要具体的和理论上有动机的诊断 测试复杂的句法知识，这是我们目前所缺乏的。针对单语英语规范的现有工具 西班牙语不能充分评估复杂的句法，学校也缺乏精确的语法衡量标准 他们可以用来确定影响儿童语言和识字成绩的因素。 有效的评估工具对于推进研究和教育实践至关重要--典型发展 以一种或两种语言授课的单语者和双语者。我们的创新就是创造新的 受语言学理论和语言启发的西班牙语和英语中的理论动机的语言测量 评估西班牙语和英语复杂语法结构听觉理解能力的习得研究 英语对于识字能力的发展至关重要。该项目的目标是验证新的基于图片的 9至10年100名说西班牙语和英语的单语者和50名双语者的理解任务 老年人(75名儿童，75名成人)。具体目标1检查西班牙语新语言措施的有效性 测试动词被动句、关系从句和代词解释以及它们与全球熟练程度的关系， 识字率和认知度。《特殊目的2》检验英语测试中新措施的有效性 同样的结构。为了检验与标准相关的效度，新语言任务的分数将被关联起来 具有既定的全球水平衡量标准--三项西班牙语和三项英语测试 伍德科克·约翰逊四级口语测试，并确立了识字措施：文章 理解和阅读流利的西班牙语部分，来自Batería III Woodcock-Muñoz和 等同于伍德考克-约翰逊四级成就测验的英语分测验。以确定潜在的 双语儿童在复杂语法理解上的困难与语音作业有关 记忆或对西班牙语和/或英语习得不完全，在新的语言任务上的表现将是 与执行功能和语音工作的既定认知测量的分数相关 记忆。一旦得到验证，我们新的语言信息测试将使我们在方法上取得进展 从理论上讲，要了解典型的开发单语言和双语配置文件，并解决 复杂的语法、认知功能和书面语言之间密不可分的联系。《知识》 从这个项目中获得的将是制定有效的评估、指导和干预的关键 在拉美裔人口中促进强健的语言和识字技能和学术成功的战略。

Strong language skills are foundational for the development of literacy. This project investigates how grammatical development relates to literacy development in 9- to 10-year-old monolingual Spanish, monolingual English, and Spanish-English bilingual children by assessing comprehension of complex grammatical structures mastered through increased exposure to written language at school. To appropriately measure children's later grammatical development we need specific and theoretically-motivated diagnostic tests of complex syntactic knowledge, which we currently lack. Existing tools normed for monolingual English and Spanish do not assess complex syntax adequately, and schools lack precise measures of grammatical development they can use to identify the factors contributing to children's language and literacy outcomes. Valid assessment instruments are vital to advance research and educational practices with typically-developing monolingual and bilingual speakers schooled in one or two languages. Our innovation is the creation of new theoretically-motivated linguistic measures in Spanish and English informed by linguistic theory and language acquisition research to assess auditory comprehension of complex grammatical structures in Spanish and English that are crucial for literacy development. The goal of this project is to validate new picture-based comprehension tasks with 100 monolingual and 50 bilingual speakers of Spanish and of English, 9- to10-year old (75 children, 75 adults). Specific Aim 1 examines the validity of the new language measures in Spanish testing verbal passives, relative clauses, and pronoun interpretation and their relationship to global proficiency, literacy and cognitive measures. Specific Aim 2 examines the validity of the new measures in English testing the same structures. To examine criterion-related validity, scores on the new language tasks will be correlated with established global proficiency measures--the three Spanish and three English subtests from the Woodcock Johnson IV Tests of Oral Language, and established literacy measures: the passage comprehension and reading fluency sections in Spanish from the Batería III Woodcock-Muñoz, and the equivalent English subtests from the Woodcock-Johnson IV Achievement Test. To determine whether potential difficulty with complex grammar comprehension by the bilingual children is related to phonological working memory or to incomplete acquisition of Spanish and/or English, performance on the new linguistic tasks will be correlated with scores on established cognitive measures of executive functioning and phonological working memory. Once validated, our new linguistically informed tests will allow us to make progress methodologically and theoretically, to understand typically-developing monolingual and dual language profiles, and to address the inextricable links between complex grammar, cognitive functioning, and written language. The knowledge gained from this project will be critical for developing effective assessment, instruction, and intervention strategies to promote robust language and literacy skills and academic success in the Hispanic population.