Age related differences in language usage and reading between english monolinguals andbilinguals

Department/Unit

Dept of English and Applied Linguistics

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Source Title

27th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information, and Computation, PACLIC 27

First Page

191

Last Page

198

Publication Date

1-1-2013

Abstract

© 2013 by Dylan Marshall and Hamid Gomari. This study investigates age related differences in standardized tests scores of language usage and reading from elementary to high school for students who are either monolinguals whose L1 is English or bilinguals whose L1 is not English. An interactioneffect between grade level andreading and language usage standardized test scores was hypothesized because as bilinguals become proficient in Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) in English,they are able tonarrow the ‘achievement gap’in comparison to their monolingual classmates and even experience cognitive advantages (Cummins, 1999).Participants were 1081 students from an international school. Language usage and readingwere measured using MAP standardized achievement tests.The2x2 ANOVA showed an interaction between grade level and languages spoken on language usage (p<0.05).There was a main effect for languages spoken and grade level on language usage (p<0.05). No interaction was found forgrade level and languages spoken on reading (p>0.05). A main effect was found for languages spoken andgrade level on reading (p<0.05).Significant differences exist between bilingual and monolingualsand these differences change over time. As bilingual students are immersed in English education, their performance on standardized tests catches up with their monolingual counterparts by grade 5 for language usage but not for reading, but no cognitive advantages are shown.

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