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Federally Funded Research on Spanish-English Biliteracy
How Spanish-Speaking Children Learn to Read in English
A Research Funding Partnership of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Institute of Education Sciences (formerly the Office of Educational Research and Improvement)
Children's early language and pre-reading development is key to their later success in life. Long-term school achievement potential is set in the first few years of formal schooling, but the readiness for these early school years is set during the preschool years. Your child's vocabulary is especially important. No matter what language a child speaks, the size of his or her early vocabulary has been shown to be an important factor in helping that child learn. Children in minority groups, according to research, have been disproportionately represented among those who have difficulty in school with reading, mathematics and general educational attainment. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress for 2000 indicate that in the fourth, eighth and twelfth grades, black, Hispanic and American Indian students did not perform as well as white and Asian/Pacific Islander students. For example, while 27 percent of white and 22 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander fourth graders performed below the basic ability level in reading achievement, this figure was 63 percent for blacks, 58 percent for Hispanics, and 57 percent for American Indians.
We know that vocabulary (in any language) is an important basis for learning to read. However, we do not know what specific effects language development has on school readiness when children are raised speaking a language that is different from the language of instruction in the classroom, or the best ways to deliver that instruction to optimize children's reading and academic success. Therefore, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health, together with the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education, is spending nearly $32 million to answer these and other questions about the best ways to help Spanish-speaking children learn to read in English. This research should help teachers, school administrators, and parents enable Spanish-speaking children to realize their full potential in American schools.
There is some evidence, although not a lot and often not based on large, well-designed research studies, that children who learn more than one language have greater cognitive flexibility and cognitive capacity compared to monolingual children. Many nations encourage foreign-language learning early in life and include it early in the educational process. Solid research evidence on the effects of bilingualism on learning ability could help us understand not only how best to help children learn but also what is going on in a child's brain as he or she learns to speak and to read and write in additional languages. We need to understand how learning more than one language affects the thinking and learning process in order to help all children but also to develop specific ways to help children who speak a language different from the language of instruction and to help children who have language and learning difficulties.
In 1993, young Hispanic children in the U.S. were behind non-Hispanic white preschoolers in school-related skills such as identifying basic colors, recognizing letters of the alphabet, counting to 50, and printing their names and were underrepresented in high-quality preschool programs, many of which are not prepared to deal with linguistic and cultural diversity in children. But many children facing such disadvantages do very well-we do not understand why. We need to understand both the things that help children learn when exposed to a new language and the characteristics that help children do well despite the disadvantages they often face. Knowing this will also help us aid those children learning English as a new language who have learning or developmental disabilities. Because the number of Hispanic children in the U.S. is growing rapidly, finding such answers is critical. By 2030, the Bureau of the Census projects that Hispanic students age 5-18 will number 16 million, representing 25 percent of the total student population. Bilingual education programs for these children vary. Some try to teach children in both languages (with the percentage of each language spoken varying among programs) while others teach only in English and may or may not have Spanish-speaking teachers or aides in the classroom. We do not have clear evidence as to the effect such programs have on the language or learning abilities of these children. We do not know what methods will best prepare Spanish- speaking children to learn math or other subjects or to learn to read either in Spanish or in English. We need more information on the best teaching methods for Spanish-speaking children in American schools.
In 1999, the NICHD and the IES began a major research program to learn about how best to teach Spanish-speaking children to learn to read English. They asked researchers at universities and other research institutions to apply for grants to study certain important questions about this topic, and in 2000 they awarded seven grants to fund nearly 15 projects. From 2000-2004, the Federal government is spending nearly $32 million to study the best methods for teaching Spanish-speaking children to read in English and the factors that affect how well these children learn to read. Over the five years of this funded research, the group of researchers will study more than 5,400 children at many sites in eight states (California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Utah) as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. The research investigators, while busy with their own research teams and specific research aims, are also working together across teams to develop new tests that will enable them to fairly measure the children's abilities and progress. This will help them answer the questions the NICHD and IES have indicated as being the most important.
» Federally Funded Research on Spanish-English Biliteracy
Three Broad Research Questions
Research Grants
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