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. 2016 May;43(3):687-706.
doi: 10.1017/S0305000915000811. Epub 2016 Feb 26.

Effects of Age of English Exposure, Current Input/Output, and grade on bilingual language performance

Lisa M Bedore  1 , Elizabeth D Peña  1 , Zenzi M Griffin  1 , J Gregory Hixon  1
Affiliations

Effects of Age of English Exposure, Current Input/Output, and grade on bilingual language performance

Lisa M Bedore et al. J Child Lang. 2016 May.

Abstract

This study evaluates the effects of Age of Exposure to English (AoEE) and Current Input/Output on language performance in a cross-sectional sample of Spanish-English bilingual children. First- (N = 586) and third-graders (N = 298) who spanned a wide range of bilingual language experience participated. Parents and teachers provided information about English and Spanish language use. Short tests of semantic and morphosyntactic development in Spanish and English were used to quantify children's knowledge of each language. There were significant interactions between AoEE and Current Input/Output for children at third grade in English and in both grades for Spanish. In English, the relationship between AoEE and language scores were linear for first- and third-graders. In Spanish a nonlinear relationship was observed. We discuss how much of the variance was accounted for by AoEE and Current Input/Output.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
First-grade performance on BESOS English as a function of Current English Input/Output. Lines represent performance by age of exposure to English in years.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Third-grade performance on BESOS English as a function of Current English Input/Output. Lines represent performance by age of exposure to English in years up to age 6·5.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Third-grade performance on BESOS English as a function of Current Spanish Input/Output. Lines represent performance by age of exposure to English in years.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Third-grade performance on BESOS Spanish as a function of Current Spanish Input/Output. Lines represent performance by age of exposure to English in years up to age 6·5.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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