Effects of a Supplemental Spanish Oral Language Program on Sentence Length, Complexity, and Grammaticality in Spanish-Speaking Children Attending English-Only Preschools

• Published in: Language, speech & hearing services in schools Vol. 41; no. 1; pp. 3 - 13
• Main Authors: Restrepo, M. Adelaida, Castilla, Anny P, Schwanenflugel, Paula J, Neuharth-Pritchett, Stacey, Hamilton, Claire E, Arboleda, Alejandra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States ASHA 01.01.2010; American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA); American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Academic failure; Analysis; Analysis of Variance; Child Language; Child, Preschool; Children; Children & youth; Cultural identity; Education - methods; Educational Needs; English Instruction; Female; Humans; Intervention; Language; Language Acquisition; Language disorders; Language instruction; Language Skills; Language Tests; Linguistics; Low income groups; Male; Multilingualism; Oral Language; Phonemes; Phonemic Awareness; Preschool children; Preschool Education; Psychological aspects; Reading Skills; Reproducibility of Results; Schools; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Sentences; Spanish; Spanish language; Spanish Speaking; Speech Communication; Studies; Task forces; Time Factors; Vocabulary; Wellness programs; Young Children; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0161-1461; 1558-9129
• DOI: 10.1044/0161-1461(2009/06-0017)

Anny P. Castilla State University of New York, Fredonia Paula J. Schwanenflugel Stacey Neuharth-Pritchett University of Georgia, Athens Claire E. Hamilton University of Massachusetts, Amherst Alejandra Arboleda Instituto Neurológico de Antioquia, Colombia, South America Contact author: María Adelaida Restrepo, Arizona State University, Department of Speech and Hearing Science, P.O. Box 870102, Tempe AZ 85287-0102. E-mail: laida.restrepo{at}asu.edu . Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a supplemental Spanish language instruction program for children who spoke Spanish as their native language and were attending English-only preschool programs. Specifically, the study evaluated the program's effects on the children's Spanish sentence length in words, subordination index, and grammaticality of sentences. Method: Forty-five Spanish-speaking children attending English-only prekindergarten classrooms were selected for study. Of those, 15 children received 30 min of Spanish instruction 5 days a week for 16 weeks. The program targeted 5–10 vocabulary words a week, dialogic book reading, phonemic awareness, and letter knowledge. The remaining 30 children participated in regular preschool English instruction. Students were evaluated before intervention, immediately after intervention, and 4 months following intervention. Results: Repeated measures analyses of variance indicated that the children who received the small-group supplemental Spanish language instruction made significant gains in their Spanish sentence length in words and subordination index when compared to those receiving regular English-only classroom instruction. There were no differences in the children's grammaticality of sentences. Discussion and Clinical Implications: The findings demonstrate that a daily short native language program has significant effects on sentence length in words and subordination index in English language learners who are attending English-only preschool programs. KEY WORDS: Spanish, intervention, sentence length, complexity, grammaticality CiteULike     Connotea     Del.icio.us     Digg     Facebook     Reddit     Technorati     Twitter     What's this?