Pilot study of online training modules to improve speech-language pathology students’ explicit syntax knowledge

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) exhibit weaknesses in the syntactic aspects of language that affect their spoken language (i.e., speaking and listening) and written language (i.e., reading and writing). Speech-language pathologists (SLP) who work with children with DLD are the team member with the greatest expertise in syntax. However, emerging data suggest that speech-language pathology (SLP) students and SLPs have limitations in their explicit syntax knowledge that may affect how they assess and treat the language and literacy knowledge and skills of children with DLD. Additionally, there is a lack of data on the outcomes of professional development specific to syntax. This paper reports on the effects of self-paced, online learning modules on SLP graduate students’ explicit syntax knowledge. Thirty-six SLP graduate students completed online syntax learning modules that taught four pairs of syntactic structures. SLP graduate students experienced a treatment effect from two of the four online training modules. Treatment effects seemed to be influenced by the syntactic skill being treated, by prior knowledge of that particular syntactic structure, and by other environmental factors, including training program. Although future studies should explore these factors further, the outcomes of this pilot study are the first to report on a way to improve SLP graduate students’, and potentially SLPs’, explicit syntax knowledge.

     

Self-reported knowledge on literacy of Israeli speech-language pathologists and special education teachers

The promotion of literacy skills is considered a cornerstone in the work of special education teachers (SETs) and speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The present study examined the self-reported literacy knowledge of Israeli 67 SETs and 72 SLPs along three dimensions: development, assessment and intervention, and emergent literacy. Participants in both groups completed an individually delivered Likert-based survey. The main findings indicated positive correlations between development, assessment, and emergent literacy in both groups and no differences in their knowledge about emergent literacy. In contrast, SLPs reported lack of knowledge in literacy development, assessment and intervention, compared to SETs. The relationship between language modalities - reading, writing, oral language – seems to determine the role of each profession in literacy. Furthermore, the perception of written language as a modality or as a style of discourse was not conclusive in both groups. Therefore, policy makers and training programs should continue to deepen the training of professional staffs, especially by encouraging and training SLPs to address written language. Furthermore, the demarcation of the field of linguistic literacy of each profession is not evident in practice and needs to be discussed and coordinated to achieve true and optimal inter-professional cooperation.     

Dual language development of Latino children: Effect of instructional program type and the home and school language environment

Latino dual language children typically enter school with a wide range of proficiencies in Spanish and English, many with low proficiency in both languages, yet do make gains in one or both languages during their first school years. Dual language development is associated with how language is used at home and school, as well as the type of instructional program children receive at school. The present study investigates how changes in both Spanish and English proficiencies of Latino, second-generation immigrant children (n = 163) from kindergarten to second grade relate to instructional program type as well as language use at home and school. A series of MANCOVAs demonstrated significant dual language gains in children who were in bilingual classrooms and schools where Spanish was used among the teachers, students, and staff. Furthermore, only in classrooms where both Spanish and English were used did children reach age-appropriate levels of academic proficiency in both languages. Home language use was also significantly associated with dual language gains as was maternal Spanish vocabulary knowledge before controlling for maternal education. Educational implications and potential benefits associated with bilingualism are discussed.     

Validating English Language Proficiency Assessment Uses for English Learners: Academic Language Proficiency and Content Assessment Performance

States use standards‐based English language proficiency (ELP) assessments to inform relatively high‐stakes decisions for English learner (EL) students. Results from these assessments are one of the primary criteria used to determine EL students’ level of ELP and readiness for reclassification. The results are also used to evaluate the effectiveness of and funding allocation to district or school programs that serve EL students. In an effort to provide empirical validity evidence for such important uses of ELP assessments, this study focused on examining the constructs of ELP assessments as a fundamental validity issue. Particularly, the study examined the types of language proficiency measured in three sample states’ ELP assessments and the relationship between each type of language proficiency and content assessment performance. The results revealed notable variation in the presence of academic and social language in the three ELP assessments. A series of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses also revealed varied relationships among social language proficiency, academic language proficiency, and content assessment performance. The findings highlight the importance of examining the constructs of ELP assessments for making appropriate interpretations and decisions based on the assessment scores for EL students. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Predictors of Grade 2 Word Reading and Vocabulary Learning from Grade 1 Variables in Spanish‐Speaking Children: Similarities and Differences

We examined the components of first (L1) and second language (L2) phonological processing that are related to L2 word reading and vocabulary. Spanish‐speaking English learners (EL) were classified as average or low readers in grades 1 and 2. A large number of children who started out as poor readers in first grade became average readers in second grade while vocabulary scores were more stable. Binary logistic regressions examined variables related to classifications of consistently average, consistently low, or improving on reading or vocabulary across grades. Good L2 phonological short‐term memory and phonological awareness scores predicted good reading and vocabulary scores. L1 and L2 measures differentiated consistently good performers from consistently low performers, while only L2 measures differentiated children who improved from children who remained low performers. Children who are EL should be screened on measures of pseudoword repetition and phonological awareness with low scorers being good candidates for receiving extra assistance in acquiring L2 vocabulary and reading. This study suggests measures that can be used to select children who have a greater likelihood of experiencing difficulties in reading and vocabulary.     

DIMENSIONALITY AND MEASUREMENT INVARIANCE OF A SCHOOL READINESS SCREENER BY ETHNICITY AND HOME LANGUAGE

This study examined the dimensionality and measurement invariance of the Kindergarten Student Entrance Profile (KSEP) when used to rate the school readiness of children from different ethnic backgrounds (Latino or White, non‐Latino), as well as from households where a different language was predominant (Spanish or English). Teachers rated the readiness of 9,335 children during the first month of kindergarten in four ethnically diverse, medium‐sized school districts in central California. From the total sample, two overlapping subsamples (S1 and S2) were identified. First, a series of confirmatory factor analyses were conducted with S1 (n = 7,787) to examine the dimensionality and measurement invariance of the KSEP with children who identified as either Latino or White at the time of kindergarten enrollment. Next, the same set of analyses were replicated with S2 (n = 9, 234) to examine whether results held for students from households where the primary language spoken was Spanish or English. Results yielded evidence supporting a two‐factor structure encompassing social‐emotional and cognitive dimensions of children's readiness. In addition, results showed the KSEP exhibited measurement invariance across student ethnicities (Latino/White) and home languages (Spanish/English). The results of this study provide psychometric evidence that is particularly important for a universal school readiness screener.     

The impact of bilingual preschool education on the language development of Spanish-speaking children

This study addressed the question of what effect bilingual preschool education has on the Spanish and English language development of Spanish speaking children. This question was addressed by measuring the language proficiency of children enrolled in a bilingual preschool program and children who stay at home during the day. Three dimensions of language proficiency were examined: language reception, production, and verbal complexity. Using a repeated measures design, it was found that children enrolled in preschool gained proficiency in English at a faster rate while maintaining a similar level of Spanish proficiency as those children who stay at home during the day. Results of this study are discussed in terms of current issues in the early childhood education of non-English-speaking children.     

A Study of Home Emergent Literacy Experiences of Young Latino English Learners

This empirical study explored the home environment literacy practices of young Latino English learners and their families. The participants were 217 incoming Kindergarten Latino EL students and parents. The data collection included a completed HLEQ by the parents. In addition, children were administered the PPVT, the preLAS, the PALS-K screening, the Woodcock Reading Mastery assessment, and the Wide Range Achievement test. All of the literacy assessments given to the children provided the researchers with comprehensive look at their literacy knowledge base. The results of this study indicate that there were two significant paths for students’ achievement: availability of books and child initiated literacy factors that were directly related to the phonological processing efforts of students.     

An English-Speaking Prekindergarten Teacher for Young Latino Children: Implications of the Teacher–Child Relationship on Second Language Learning

This case study was designed to describe how an effective English-speaking prekindergarten teacher develops strategies for communicating with and teaching young English language learners. The teacher’s classroom practices to enhance her own relationship with the children promoted opportunities for the Latino children to become full participants in the classroom community. At the end of the year, the Latino children showed progress in formal and informal measures of receptive vocabulary in both English and Spanish. Findings from the study suggest the importance of the affective and social nature of second language learning in young children. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Support for Extended Discourse in Teacher Talk With Linguistically Diverse Preschoolers

A study was conducted in a large Head Start organization that serves large numbers of Latino children in order to empirically describe the nature and quality of the classroom language learning environment. By observing 147 literacy-based lessons in 6 classrooms and surveying 167 teachers throughout the organization, we investigated the amount of teachers' use of extended discourse during literacy-based lessons, and when and how Spanish and/or English was used as the medium of communication. Research Findings: Only 22% of the 147 literacy-based lessons observed fostered extended discourse; the most commonly implemented lesson was characterized by a routine format of the teacher talking and the children listening. English was regarded as the language of instruction, whereas Spanish was used mostly to regulate behavior and emotions. By fitting multilevel models to the data, we found that teaching practice was relatively stable across the classrooms. Practice or Policy: More emphasis should be placed on professional training focused on supporting classroom language interactions that foster literacy development and on the use of language that best fosters and facilitates such extended discourse.     

“Why in This Bilingual Classroom … Hablamos Más Español?” Language Choice by Bilingual Science Students

This qualitative sociolinguistic research study examines Latino/a students’ use of language in a science classroom and laboratory. This study was conducted in a school in the southwestern United States that serves an economically depressed, predominantly Latino population. The object of study was a 5th-grade bilingual (Spanish/English) class. The findings demonstrate the students’ awareness of their own bilingualism, their preference for speaking Spanish, and their conceptualization of English as the language of academic success. Most significantly, this study reveals how the institutional context impacts both the teacher’s and the students’ behaviors, resulting in an implicit institutionalized bias against Spanish.     

Phonological processing and emergent literacy in Spanish-speaking preschool children

Phonological awareness (PA), phonological memory (PM), and phonological access to lexical storage (also known as RAN), play important roles in acquiring literacy. We examined the convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of these phonological processing abilities (PPAs) in 147 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children whose native language was Spanish. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the validity of each PPA as separate from general cognitive ability and separate from each other. Moreover, structural equation modeling found RAN uniquely associated with knowledge of Spanish letter names and Spanish letter sounds. PA was found the best predictor of children’s ability to distinguish alphabetic text from nonalphabetic text. Finally, general cognitive ability was only indirectly associated with emergent literacy skills via PPAs. These results highlight the importance of PPAs in the early literacy development of native Spanish speaking preschool children.     

Profile of Australian preschool children with speech sound disorders at risk for literacy difficulties

Abstract

Speech sound disorders are a common communication difficulty in preschool children. Teachers indicate difficulty identifying and supporting these children. The aim of this research was to describe speech and language characteristics of children identified by their parents and/or teachers as having possible communication concerns. 275 Australian 4- to 5-year-old children from 45 preschools whose parents and teachers were concerned about their talking participated in speech-language pathology assessments to examine speech, language, literacy, non-verbal intelligence, oromotor skills and hearing. The majority (71.3%) of children demonstrated lower consonant accuracy than expected for their age, 63.9% did not pass the language-screening task, 65.5% had not been assessed and 72.4% had not received intervention from a speech-language pathologist. The 132 children who were identified with speech sound disorder (phonological impairment) were more likely to be male (62.9%) who were unintelligible to unfamiliar listeners, and had poor emergent literacy and phonological processing skills, despite having typical hearing, oral structures, and intelligence. Children identified by parents and teachers with concerns may have a range of speech, language and communication needs requiring professional support.     

Observations of teacher-child interactions in classrooms serving Latinos and dual language learners: Applicability of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System in diverse settings

With the rising number of Latino and dual language learner (DLL) children attending pre-k and the importance of assessing the quality of their experiences in those settings, this study examined the extent to which a commonly used assessment of teacher-child interactions, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), demonstrated similar psychometric properties in classrooms serving ethnically and linguistically diverse children as it does in other classrooms. Specifically, this study investigated: (1) whether CLASS observations of teacher-child interactions are organized in three domains across classrooms with varying ethnic and language compositions (measurement invariance) and (2) the extent to which CLASS-assessed teacher-child interactions (emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support) predict children's social, math, and literacy outcomes equally well for Latino and DLL children (predictive validity). CLASS observations of teacher-child interactions were conducted in 721 state-funded pre-k classrooms across 11 states. Direct assessments and teacher ratings of social, math, and literacy outcomes were collected for four randomly selected children in each classroom. CLASS observations factored similarly across pre-k classrooms with different Latino and DLL compositions and predicted improvements in school readiness regardless of a child's Latino or DLL status. Results suggest CLASS functions equally well as an assessment of the quality of teacher-child interactions in pre-k settings regardless of the proportion of Latino children and/or the language diversity of the children in that setting.     

Development of Reading in Grades K–2 in Spanish‐Speaking English‐Language Learners

Development of English‐ and Spanish‐reading skills was explored in a sample of 251 Spanish‐speaking English‐language learners from kindergarten through Grade 2. Word identification and reading comprehension developed at a normal rate based on monolingual norms for Spanish‐ and English‐speaking children, but English oral language lagged significantly behind. Four categories of predictor variables were obtained in Spanish in kindergarten and in English in first grade: print knowledge, expressive language (as measured by vocabulary and sentence repetition tasks), phonological awareness, and rapid automatic naming (RAN). Longitudinal regression analyses indicated a modest amount of cross‐language transfer from Spanish to English. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that developing English‐language skills (particularly phonological awareness and RAN) mediated the contribution of Spanish‐language variables to later reading. Further analyses revealed stronger within‐ than cross‐language associations of expressive language with later reading, suggesting that some variables function cross‐linguistically, and others within a particular language. Results suggest that some of the cognitive factors underlying reading disabilities in monolingual children (e.g., phonological awareness and RAN) may be important to an understanding of reading difficulties in bilingual children.     

According to Plan? Examining the Intended and Unintended Treatment Effects of EL Classification in Early Elementary and the Transition to Middle School

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that classification as an English learner (EL) is consequential for students, with important effects on educational achievement and attainment. Yet we know little about the mechanisms that underlie the effects of EL classification. This study explores whether, and to what extent, EL classification results in the treatments it is designed to trigger, and also whether, and to what extent, EL classification triggers unintended treatments. The study uses longitudinal school district data and regression discontinuity analyses to evaluate the treatment effects of EL classification. It examines two moments: initial classification as students enter kindergarten, and retained EL classification as students transition into middle school. Findings suggest that EL classification, for students near the margin of classification, results in many treatments it is intended to trigger including language assessments in early elementary, and English language development instruction and modified content instruction in middle school. In addition, findings show that EL classification triggers two unintended treatments among students; Classification limits access to English speaking peers in early elementary, and negatively impacts enrollment in a full academic course load in middle school.     

Low-income Latino mothers’ booksharing styles and children's emergent literacy development

Booksharing is often considered one of the most important activities parents can do to promote young children's early literacy skills. However, there is relatively little research on the style and nature of booksharing in Latino homes. This study examined the relation between maternal booksharing styles and low-income Latino children's subsequent language and literacy development. Eighty Latino Head Start four-year-old children and their mothers were audiotaped while they shared a wordless children's picture book together in their home. Six months later, children's emergent literacy ability was assessed. Results of a cluster analysis identified three types of maternal booksharing styles which had differential predictive power over children's literacy longitudinally. Results are discussed in terms of improving culturally appropriate research, practice and policy for early childhood and family literacy programming designed to meet the needs of young Latino children and their parents.     

LEARNING POTENTIAL ASSESSMENT AND ADAPTATION TO THE EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT: THE USEFULNESS OF THE ACFS FOR ASSESSING IMMIGRANT PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

The objective of this study was to test the usefulness of dynamic assessment for determining cognitive abilities such as classification, auditory and visual memory, pattern sequences, perspective taking, verbal planning, learning potential, and metacognition in immigrant preschool children with and without competence in the dominant language (Spanish). One hundred seventy‐six preschool‐children were distributed in three groups according to the cultural background of their parents (native Spanish/Spanish‐speaking immigrants/non‐Spanish speaking immigrants). The children were assessed by means of the K‐BIT, the Application of Cognitive Functions Scale (ACFS), and metacognition, language competence and academic performance estimates. The results show that although there are initial differences in execution between the two groups (Spanish/immigrants), there are no differences with regard to learning potential. The study also demonstrates the importance of behavioral, attitudinal, and metacognitive variables in children's test execution and academic performance.     

Improving content area reading comprehension of Spanish speaking English learners in Grades 4 and 5 using web-based text structure instruction

Reading and comprehending content area texts is important for academic and professional success as well as life skills necessary to maintain good health and quality lifestyle. Spanish speaking English language learners have shown poor performance on high-stakes assessments in reading comprehension. The number of Spanish speaking English learners (ELs) in our schools continues to increase at a fast pace, and therefore it is imperative that we address their reading comprehension needs swiftly and effectively. The text structure strategy has shown positive results on comprehension outcomes in many research studies with students at Grades 2, 4, 5, and 7. This study is the first implementation of instruction about the text structure strategy expressly designed to accommodate the linguistic and comprehension needs of Spanish speaking ELs in Grades 4 and 5. Strategy instruction on the web for English learners (SWELL) was designed to deliver instruction about the text structure strategy to Spanish speaker English learners. A randomized controlled study with pre and post-tests was conducted with 14 classrooms at fourth-grade and 17 classrooms at fifth-grade in high poverty schools where over 85% of students were Spanish speaking bilinguals or ELs. Analysis of data using multi-level models show moderate to large-effects favoring the students in the SWELL classrooms over the business as usual control classrooms on important measures such as a standardized reading comprehension test and main idea and cloze tasks. This research has practical implications for the use of web-based tools to provide high-quality and supportive instruction to improve Spanish speaking ELs reading comprehension skills.