Bilingualism and Reading
in a Native Language
By Stacy Colwell
Foreign Language:
A valuable commodity
• Increased pressure to keep up with
educational systems of Asia and Europe
• Growing number of non-native English
speakers in the United States
Problem
• Not enough foreign language instruction to
compete globally
• Language programs begin too late in
school to result in language proficiency
• Increased pressure to produce in
standardized tests
– Does learning a foreign language negatively
affect reading ability in the native language?
Research Questions
1. What is the relationship between the
acquisition of a second language for
native English speakers and reading
ability in the native language?
2. Do middle school foreign language
students score higher on standardized
tests in reading than their monolingual
counterparts?
Significance of Study
Determine whether or not foreign language
negatively affects reading ability
• Increase communication
• Compete on a global level
• Save time, energy, and money
Literature Review
• BIA+ Model
– distinct word identification and task/decision
systems
• language is nonselective
• bottom-up processing
(Dijkstra & Van Heuven, 2002; Titone et al.,
2011; Lagrou, Hartsuiker & Duyck, 2011)
• Supported by fMRI and ERP imaging
techniques (Van Heuven & Dijkstra, 2010)
Literature Review (cont’d)
• Second language alters the highly automated
skill of reading comprehension in the native
language (Van Assche et al., 2009)
• Presence of cognates increases rate of word
recognition (Van Assche et al., 2011)
• Bilinguals faster and more efficient in Attentional
Network Task and better with conflicting
information (Costa, 2008)
Research Methods
• Quantitative Nonrandomized Control
Group Pretest-Postest Design
• Students from two similar middle schools
– Geographic location
– History of similar standardized test scores
– Demographics
• Longitudinal Study
Research Methods
Research Methods
Group 1 (control)
• Pretest
• Standard curriculum
without foreign language
instruction
• Monitor yearly progress
Group 2 (treatment)
• Pretest
• Foreign language
instruction starting in
6th grade
• Monitor yearly progress
Data Collection
• At the end of each school year
– Standardized test scores in reading
• CRCT - Reading
• EOCT - 9th Grade Lit / American Literature
(reading and literature; reading, listening, speaking
and viewing across the curriculum)
• Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) test (Carver,
1992)
References
Ameel, E., Malt, B. C., Storms, G., & Van Assche, F. (2009). Semantic convergence in the
bilingual lexicon. Journal of Memory and Language, 60(2), 270-290.
Carver, R. P. (1992). What do standardized tests of reading comprehension measure in
terms of efficiency, accuracy, and rate? Reading Research Quarterly, 27(4), 347-359.
Costa, A., Hernández, M., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2008). Bilingualism aids conflict
resolution: Evidence from the ANT task. Cognition, 106(1), 59-86.
Dijkstra, T. & Van Heuven, W.J.B. (2002). The architecture of the bilingual word
recognition system: From identification to decision. Bilingualism: Language and
Cognition, 5(1), 175-197.
Hale, Andrea D.Henning, Jaime B.Hawkins, Renee O.Sheeley, WesleyShoemaker,
LarissaReynolds,Jennifer R.Moch, Christina. (2011). Reading assessment methods for
middle-school students: An investigation of reading comprehension rate and maze
accurate response rate. Psychology in the Schools, 48(1), 28-36.
References (cont’d)
Kang, J. Y. (2012). Do bilingual children possess better phonological awareness?
investigation of korean monolingual and korean-english bilingual children. Reading
and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 25(2), 411-431.
Kieffer, M. J., & Lesaux, N. K. (2012). Knowledge of words, knowledge about words:
Dimensions of vocabulary in first and second language learners in sixth grade.
Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 25(2), 347-373.
Lagrou, E., Hartsuiker, R. J., & Duyck, W. (2011). Knowledge of a second language
influences auditory word recognition in the native language. Journal of Experimental
Psychology.Learning, Memory & Cognition, 37(4), 952-965.
Lorenzo, F., Moore, P., & Casal, S. (2011). On complexity in bilingual research: The
causes, effects, and breadth of content and language integrated learning--A reply to
bruton (2011). Applied Linguistics, 32(4), 450-455.
Slavin, R. E., & Cheung, A. (2005). A synthesis of research on language of reading
instruction for english language learners. Review of Educational Research, 75(2),
247-284.
References (cont’d)
Tahan, S., Cline, T., & Messaoud-Galusi, S. (2011). The relationship between language
dominance and pre-reading skills in young bilingual children in egypt. Reading and
Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 24(9), 1061-1087.
Titone, D., Libben, M., Mercier, J., Whitford, V., & Pivneva, I. (2011). Bilingual lexical
access during L1 sentence reading: The effects of L2 knowledge, semantic constraint,
and L1-L2 intermixing. Journal of Experimental Psychology.Learning, Memory &
Cognition, 37(6), 1412-1431.
Van Assche, E., Drieghe, D., Duyck, W., Welvaert, M., & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2011). The
influence of semantic constraints on bilingual word recognition during sentence
reading. Journal of Memory and Language, 64(1), 88-107.
Van Assche, EvaDuyck, WouterHartsuiker, Robert J.Diependaele, Kevin. (2009). Does
bilingualism change native-language reading? cognate effects in a sentence context.
Psychological Science (Wiley-Blackwell), 20(8), 923-927.
Van Heuven, W. J. B., & Dijkstra, T. (2010). Language comprehension in the bilingual
brain: FMRI and ERP support for psycholinguistic models. Brain Research Reviews,
64(1), 104-122.