Abstract
Written bilingualism represents a particular type of bilingualism that is not frequently approached. The aim of this study was to investigate the writing and reading abilities of second-generation immigrants, Spanish–English bilinguals in South Florida. 58 participants (36 females, 22 males; 18–39 years of age) were selected. Both parents were native Spanish speakers and the home language was Spanish; 37 were born in the United States and 21 were born in a Latin American country, but arrived to the US before the age of 10. Equivalent reading and writing tests were administered both in Spanish and English. Performance was significantly higher in English than in Spanish in the following tests: reading aloud (speed and errors), writing sentences, spontaneous writing number of words, and spontaneous writing errors (spelling and grammatical). When comparing those participants born in the US and abroad, no significant differences were found in Spanish, but in English; participants born in the US did better in reading aloud (errors), and spontaneous writing errors (spelling and grammatical). It was concluded that reading and writing abilities are in general higher in English than in Spanish in this group of bilinguals, which is correlated with the language used in the school they attended. This study emphasize the importance to analyze not only oral but also written bilingualism. Toward the future, it would be particularly important to study written bilingualism in other types of bilingualism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ardila, A. (2007). Bilingualism in the contemporary world. In A. Ardila & E. Ramos (Eds.), Speech and language disorders in bilinguals (pp. 1–20). New York: Nova Science Publishers.
Ardila, A. (2012). Ventajas y desventajas del bilingüismo [Advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism]. Forma y Función, 25, 99–114.
Ardila, A., & Cuetos, F. (2016). Applicability of dual-route reading models to Spanish. Psicothema, 28(1), 71–75.
Aro, M., & Wimmer, H. (2003). Learning to read: English in comparison to six more regular orthographies. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 621–635.
August, D., & Shanahan, T. (Eds.). (2006). Developing literacy in second-language learners: A report of the national literacy panel on language-minority children and youth. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
Benson, D. F., & Ardila, A. (1996). Aphasia: A clinical perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.
Berg, T. (1991). Phonological processing in a syllable-timed language with pre-final stress: Evidence from Spanish speech. Language and Cognitive Processes, 6, 265–301.
Bialystok, E., & Barac, R. (2012). Emerging bilingualism: Dissociating advantages for metalinguistic awareness and executive control. Cognition, 122, 67–73.
Bialystok, E., & Viswanathan, M. (2009). Components of executive control with advantages for bilingual children in two cultures. Cognition, 112(3), 494–500.
Caravolas, M., Lervåg, A., Defior, S., Seidlová Málková, G., & Hulme, C. (2013). Different patterns, but equivalent predictors, of growth in reading in consistent and inconsistent orthographies. Psychological Science, 24, 1398e1407.
Caravolas, M., Lervåg, A., Mousikou, P., Efrim, C., Litavský, M., Onochie-Quintanilla, E., et al. (2012). Common patterns of prediction of literacy development in different alphabetic orthographies. Psychological Science, 23, 678–686.
Carbonaro, W. (2006). Cross-national differences in the skills-earnings relationship: The role of labor market institutions. Social Forces, 84(3), 1819–1842.
Carroll, C. J. (2013). The effects of parental literacy involvement and child reading interest on the development of emergent literacy skills. University of Wisconsin Milwaukee: Theses and Dissertations.
Cobo-Lewis, A. B., Eilers, R. E., Pearson, B. Z., & Umbel, V. C. (2002). Interdependence of Spanish and English knowledge in language and literacy among bilingual children. In D. K. Oller & R. E. Eilers (Eds.), Language and literacy in bilingual children (pp. 118–134). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Coltheart, M. (1981). Disorders of reading and their implications for models of normal reading. Visible Language, 5(3), 245–286.
Coslett, H. B. (2011). Acquired dyslexia. In M. K. M. Heilman & E. Valenstein (Eds.), Clinical neuropsychology (pp. 108–125). New York: Oxford University Press.
Cuetos, F. (1993). Writing processes in a shallow orthography. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 5, 17–28.
Cuetos, F. (2002). Sistemas de lectura en ortografías transparentes: evolución de la dyslexia profunda en español [Reading systems in shallow orthographies: Evolution of deep dyslexia in Spanish]. Cognitiva, 14, 133–149.
Cummins, J., & Swain, M. (2014). Bilingualism in education: Aspects of theory, research and practice. Abingdon: Routledge.
Dauer, R. M. (1983). Stress-timing and syllable-timing reanalyzed. Journal of Phonetics, 11(1), 51–62.
Duursma, E., Romero-Contreras, S., Szuber, A., Proctor, P., & Snow, C. (2007). The role of home literacy and language environment on bilinguals’ English and Spanish vocabulary development. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 171–190.
Ellis, A. W., Young, A. W., & Flude, B. M. (1993). Neglect and visual language. In I. H. Robertson & J. C. Marshall (Eds.), Unilateral neglect: Clinical and experimental studies (pp. 233–255). Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Garcia-Marquez, G. (1970). Relato de un náufrago [Story of a castaway]. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc.
Gauvain, M., Savage, S., & McCollum, D. (2000). Reading at home and at school in the primary grades: Cultural and social influences. Early Education and Development, 11, 447–463.
Glenn, C. L., & de Jong, E. J. (1996). Educating immigrant children: Schools and language minorities in twelve nations. New York, NY: Garland Publishing Inc.
Goldberg, H., Paradis, J., & Crago, M. (2008). Lexical acquisition over time in minority first language children learning English as a second language. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29, 1–25.
Goswami, U., Ziegler, J. C., Dalton, L., & Schneider, W. (2003). Nonword reading across orthographies: How flexible is the choice of reading units? Applied Psycholinguistics, 24(02), 235–247.
Guerra, R. (1983). Estudio estadístico de la sílaba en español. In M. Esgueva & M. Cantarero (Eds.), Estudios de fonética I. [Studies of phonetics I] (pp. 9–112). Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.
Hamilton, A. C., & Coslett, H. B. (2007). Impairment in writing, but not reading, morphologically complex words. Neuropsychologia, 45, 1586–1590.
Hemingway, E. (1938). The short, happy life of Francis Macomber. In P. Smith (Ed.), The fifth column and the first forty-nine stories. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Hilchey, M. D., & Klein, R. M. (2011). Are there bilingual advantages on nonlinguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18(4), 625–658.
Hoff, E., & Shatz, M. (2009). Blackwell handbook of language development. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Juel, C. (1988). Learning to read and write: A longitudinal study of 54 children from first through fourth grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(4), 437.
Karanth, P. (2003). Cross-linguistic study of acquired reading disorders: Implications for reading models, disorders, acquisition, and teaching. New York: Springer.
Lesaux, N. K., & Geva, E. (2006). Synthesis: Development of literacy in language minority students. In D. L. August & T. Shanahan (Eds.), Developing literacy in a second language: Report of the national literacy panel (pp. 53–74). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
National Assessment of Educational Progress. (2003). The Nation’s report card reading Highlights 2003. Retrieved October 10, 2015, from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/main2003/2004452.pdf.
Oller, D. K., & Eilers, R. E. (Eds.). (2002). Language and literacy in bilingual children (Vol. 2). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters press.
Paradis, M., & Ardila, A. (2008). The bilingual aphasia test (American Spanish version). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
Paradis, M., Hummel, K., & Libben, G. (1989). The bilingual aphasia test. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
Paulesu, E., Démonet, J. F., Fazio, F., McCrory, E., Chanoine, V., Brunswick, N., et al. (2001). Dyslexia: Cultural diversity and biological unity. Science, 291(5511), 2165–2167.
Pearson, B. Z. (2007). Social factor in childhood bilingualism in the United States. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 399–410.
Practical Spanish. (2009). Retrieved July 7, 2015, from http://www.learnpracticalspanishonline.com/beginner/beginner-readings.html.
Rosselli, M., Ardila, A., Santisi, M. N., Arecco, M. R., Salvatierra, J., Conde, A., et al. (2002). Stroop Effect in Spanish–English bilinguals. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 8, 819–827.
Rosselli, M., Matute, E., & Ardila, A. (2006). Neuropsychological predictors of reading ability in Spanish. Revista de Neurologia, 42, 202–210.
Rubba, J. (2006). An overview of the English morphological system. English Department (Linguistics) California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba/morph/morph.over.html Accessed May 15, 2015.
Serrano, F., Genard, N., Sucena, A., Defior, S., Alegria, J., Mousty, P., et al. (2011). Variations in reading and spelling acquisition in Portuguese, French and Spanish: A cross-linguistic comparison. Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, 10, 183–204.
Seymour, P. H. K., Aro, M., & Erskine, J. M. (2003). Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 143–174.
Simpson, J. M. (2004). A look at early childhood writing in English and Spanish in a bilingual school in Ecuador. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 7, 432–448.
Smith, R. (2012). Distinct word length frequencies: Distributions and symbol entropies. Glottometrics, 23, 7–22.
Soto Huerta, M. E., & Pérez, B. (2015). Second-language literacy, immigration, and globalization. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18, 485–500.
Ullrich, L., & Roeltgen, D. P. (2011). In M. K. M. Heilman & E. Valenstein (Eds.), Clinical neuropsychology (pp. 130–151). New York: Oxford University Press.
Vacca, J. A. L., Vacca, R. T., Gove, M. K., Burkey, L. C., Lenhart, L. A., & McKeon, C. A. (2014). Reading & learning to read. New York: Pearson Higher Ed.
Yi, Y. (2008). Voluntary in heritage language: A study of biliterate Korean-heritage adolescents in the U.S. Heritage Language Journal, 6(2), 72–93.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix: Bilingualism questionnaire
Appendix: Bilingualism questionnaire
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ardila, A., Garcia, K., Garcia, M. et al. Writing and reading knowledge of Spanish/English second-generation bilinguals. Read Writ 30, 387–400 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-016-9681-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-016-9681-5