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。这个项目调查如何 语法发展与9- 10岁单语西班牙语的识字发展有关， 单语英语和西班牙语-英语双语儿童通过评估复杂的理解 通过在学校增加接触书面语言来掌握语法结构。适当 衡量儿童后期的语法发展，我们需要具体的和理论上的诊断， 测试复杂的语法知识，这是我们目前缺乏的。为单语英语规范的现有工具 和西班牙语没有充分评估复杂的句法，学校缺乏精确的语法衡量标准， 他们可以用来确定有助于儿童语言和识字成果的因素。 有效的评估工具对于推进研究和教育实践至关重要， 以一种或两种语言接受教育的单语和双语者。我们的创新是创造新的 西班牙语和英语的理论动机语言措施，由语言理论和语言告知 习得研究，以评估西班牙语中复杂语法结构的听觉理解， 英语对识字发展至关重要。该项目的目标是验证新的基于图片的 100名西班牙语和英语单语者和50名双语者的理解任务，9- 10岁 老人（75名儿童，75名成人）。具体目标1审查了西班牙文新语文措施的有效性 测试动词被动句、关系从句和代词的解释及其与整体能力的关系， 识字和认知测量。具体目标2检验了英语测试新措施的有效性 同样的结构。为了检验标准相关效度，新语言任务的分数将被相关 与既定的全球熟练程度的措施-三个西班牙语和三个英语子测试从 伍德科克约翰逊四口语测试，并建立识字措施：通过 理解和阅读流畅部分在西班牙语从巴泰里亚三世伍德科克穆尼奥斯，和 Woodcock-Johnson IV Achievement Test的英语测试。以确定潜在的 双语儿童理解复杂语法的困难与语音加工有关 记忆或西班牙语和/或英语的不完全习得，新的语言任务的表现将 与执行功能和语音工作的既定认知测量得分相关 记忆一旦得到验证，我们新的语言学测试将使我们在方法上取得进展 从理论上讲，了解典型的单语和双语发展概况，并解决 复杂的语法、认知功能和书面语言之间不可分割的联系。知识 从这个项目中获得的信息对于发展有效的评估、指导和干预至关重要 战略，以促进强大的语言和识字技能和西班牙裔人口的学术成功。

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.