TY - JOUR
T1 - The dimensionality of Spanish in young Spanish–english dual-language learners
AU - Gray, Shelley
AU - O’Connell, Ann A.
AU - Pentimonti, Jill
AU - Restrepo, Maria Adelaida
AU - Justice, Laura M.
AU - Lomax, Richard
AU - O’Connell, Ann
AU - Petrill, Stephen A.
AU - Piasta, Shayne B.
AU - Gray, Shelley
AU - Restrepo, Maria Adelaida
AU - Cain, Kate
AU - Catts, Hugh
AU - Bridges, Mindy
AU - Hogan, Tiffany
AU - Bovaird, Jim
AU - Nelson, Ron R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2015/6/1
Y1 - 2015/6/1
N2 - Purpose: This study examined the latent dimensionality of Spanish in young Spanish–English dual-language learners (DLLs). Method: Two hundred eighty-six children participated. In their prekindergarten year, children completed normreferenced and experimental language measures in Spanish requiring different levels of cognitive processing in both receptive and expressive language modalities. Results: The best-fitting model suggested a bifactor solution with a single general language factor L plus two additional factors word knowledge and integrative language knowledge. The general trait L reflects the proportion of common item variance for all of the items, and the group traits of word knowledge and integrative language knowledge explain additional domain-specific variance for those item subsets. Conclusion: Results suggest that the Spanish language in preschool-age Spanish–English DLLs is not separable into content, form, and use, nor is it separable by higherand lower-level language domains or processing demands. Instead it appears that a general language factor underlies oral language in Spanish in DLL preschoolers and that other factors account for additional variance over and above L. Findings are discussed in relation to a companion study of monolingual Englishspeaking prekindergarteners.
AB - Purpose: This study examined the latent dimensionality of Spanish in young Spanish–English dual-language learners (DLLs). Method: Two hundred eighty-six children participated. In their prekindergarten year, children completed normreferenced and experimental language measures in Spanish requiring different levels of cognitive processing in both receptive and expressive language modalities. Results: The best-fitting model suggested a bifactor solution with a single general language factor L plus two additional factors word knowledge and integrative language knowledge. The general trait L reflects the proportion of common item variance for all of the items, and the group traits of word knowledge and integrative language knowledge explain additional domain-specific variance for those item subsets. Conclusion: Results suggest that the Spanish language in preschool-age Spanish–English DLLs is not separable into content, form, and use, nor is it separable by higherand lower-level language domains or processing demands. Instead it appears that a general language factor underlies oral language in Spanish in DLL preschoolers and that other factors account for additional variance over and above L. Findings are discussed in relation to a companion study of monolingual Englishspeaking prekindergarteners.
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U2 - 10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-13-0266
DO - 10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-13-0266
M3 - Article
C2 - 25787917
AN - SCOPUS:84934754705
SN - 1092-4388
VL - 58
SP - 754
EP - 766
JO - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
JF - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
IS - 3
ER -