American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology Vol.19 238-247 August 2010. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2010/08-0086)
© American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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Research Article

The Effects of Measures of Language Experience and Language Ability on Segmental Accuracy in Bilingual Children

Brian A. Goldstein
Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

Ferenc Bunta
The University of Houston, Houston, TX

Jenny Lange
Jenny Rodriguez
Lauren Burrows
Temple University

Contact author: Brian A. Goldstein, Temple University, Communication Sciences and Disorders, 110 Weiss Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19122. E-mail: briang{at}temple.edu.

Purpose: The present study investigated the effects of selected measures of language experience (parent-reported estimates of frequency of output and language use) and language ability (parent-reported language proficiency and mean length of utterance in words) on the segmental accuracy of Spanish- and English-speaking bilingual children.

Method: The phonological skills of 50 typically developing bilingual Spanish-English children (mean age = 5;9 [years;months]) were examined. Independent variables included parent estimates of language use, language proficiency, and frequency of language output (5 groups), as well as a direct language measure (mean length of utterance in words) to predict the dependent segmental accuracy measures (percentage of consonants and vowels correct).

Results: Frequency of language output did not have an effect on any of the English or Spanish segmental accuracy measures. However, parent-reported language use and language proficiency as well as the direct measure of language ability (mean length of utterance in words) had various effects on segmental accuracy. Those effects differed, however, in language-specific patterns.

Conclusions: Parental estimates of language use and language proficiency are useful for predicting the phonological skills of bilingual Spanish- and English-speaking children, and augmenting them with a direct measure of language ability as a predictor of segmental accuracy is desirable.

Key Words: bilingual Spanish-English, language output, phonological skills


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