BILINGUAL EARLY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SUPPORT (BELLS)

描述（由申请人提供）：读写能力要求事先具备一套新兴的读写技能，这反过来又需要印刷相关的经验和早期口语能力的基础。对于来自讲西班牙语家庭的孩子来说，接触英语和/或西班牙语或英语口语能力有限可能会直接或间接地限制他们新兴英语读写能力的发展。这些限制的最终结果导致学业成绩不佳（Goldenberg, 1987），这是美国西班牙裔人口中一个持续存在的问题，其中只有63%的学生从高中毕业（Healthy People 2000）。这些限制可以通过早期接触英语以及丰富的家庭语言环境来改善。双语早期语言和读写能力支持（BELLS）项目由美国国立卫生研究院和OERI（合同编号5-R01- HD39501）资助，旨在测试西班牙语/双语儿童的语言和紧急读写能力结果，这些儿童要么参加了包括英语接触/沉浸和家庭语言和读写能力支持的早期儿童计划，要么在一个社区，在那里可以获得有限的早期儿童经验。BELLS的资助目的是评估进入幼儿园的儿童。然而，许多参加BELLS项目的孩子将在项目结束前进入幼儿园，许多孩子将在项目结束时上一年级。文献支持从儿童早期到学校环境的纵向研究（Dickinson & McCabe, 2001）。这项补充研究的目的是跟随贝尔儿童进入幼儿园和一年级。这将使我们能够检查学校和家庭对阅读成绩的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Literacy requires a prior set of emergent literacy skills that, in turn, require both print-related experiences and a foundation of early oral language competence. For children from Spanish-speaking homes, limited exposure to English and/or limited oral language competence in either Spanish or English may limit the development of their emergent English literacy both directly and indirectly. The eventual results of these limitations contribute to academic underachievement (Goldenberg, 1987), a persistent problem in the US Hispamc population in which only 63% of students graduate from high school (Healthy People 2000). These limitations may be ameliorated by early exposure to English language in addition to an enriched home language environment. The Bilingual Early Language and Literacy Support (BELLS) project was funded by NIH and OERI (Contract# 5-R01- HD39501) to test the language and emergent literacy outcomes of Spanish-speaking/bilingual children who either were enrolled in an early childhood program that included English exposure/immersion and home language and literacy support or were in a community, where limited early childhood experiences were available. BELLS was funded to assess children up to Kindergarten entry. However, many of the children enrolled in BELLS will be entering kindergarten prior to the end of the BELLS project and many will be in first grade when the project ends. The literature supports longitudinal research that follows children from early childhood into the school setting (Dickinson & McCabe, 2001). The purpose of this supplemental study will be to follow BELLS children into Kindergarten and first grade. This will allow us to examine school and home pathways to reading achievement.