Development of first- and second-language vocabulary knowledge among language-minority children: evidence from single language and conceptual scores.
J Marc Goodrich, Christopher J Lonigan
PMID 29528029WHAT IT FOUND
At entry, Spanish-speaking preschoolers knew more words in Spanish than English.
English scores rose faster and were 16 points higher by Year 2. By Year 2, 8% of known words were unique to Spanish.
Key findings
01Spanish raw scores were about 3.5 units higher than English raw scores at entry, but English raw scores grew by about 32 units and Spanish by about 12 units over two years.
02By end of Year 2, English raw scores were 16 points higher than Spanish, and the average English standard score was 89.29, still low-average.
03At Year 2, 8% of vocabulary knowledge was unique to Spanish; 40% of children knew no Spanish-only words and 30% knew one or two.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
At baseline, 937 children completed at least one measure; at Year 2, 656 did, a 30% dropout rate. The study described vocabulary growth; it did not test an intervention or a diagnostic decision. The vocabulary measure was not developed specifically for language-minority children, and translation equivalents may not match in word frequency or age of acquisition. Most children heard Spanish at home and received English instruction, so results may not apply to homes with balanced language exposure or dual-language classrooms. The measure did not assess receptive vocabulary. Standardized vocabulary scores may have poor classification accuracy for language impairment.
Declared interests
No author conflict of interest or funding declaration appears in the supplied text. The publication types list NIH and U.S. government non-PHS research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that Spanish vocabulary assessment is unnecessary for all language-minority children. By Year 2, 8% of vocabulary knowledge was unique to Spanish, but some children still had large Spanish-only vocabularies that could change scores, and the study did not test how assessment choices affect diagnosis.