Bilingualism, Language Proficiency, and Learning to Read in Two Writing Systems

By Ellen Bialystok, C. McBride-Chang, G. Luk. 2005

275 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Two hundred and four 5- and 6-year-olds who were monolingual English-, bilingual English-Chinese-, or Chinese-speaking children beginning to learn English (2nd-language learners) were compared on phonological awareness and word decoding tasks in English and Chinese. Phonological awareness developed in response to language exposure and instruction but, once established, transferred across languages for both bilinguals and 2nd-language learners. In contrast, decoding ability developed separately for each language as a function of proficiency and instruction in that language and did not transfer to the other language. Therefore, there was no overall effect of bilingualism on learning to read: Performance depended on the structure of the language, proficiency in that language, and instructional experiences with that writing system. These results point to the importance of evaluating the features of the languages and instructional context in which children become biliterate.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Education

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/934c008666f41d9162c3a1e968b38f8421241920

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

1. Marti Kinny
2. Thomas R. Tretter
3. Yuliya Ardasheva
4. Yuko Goto Butler
5. Younghee Sheen
6. J. Bitchener

In Education

1. Marti Kinny
2. Thomas R. Tretter
3. Yuliya Ardasheva
4. Yuko Goto Butler
5. Sung Won Kim

Citations in the corpus

• English language education among young learners in East Asia: A review of current research (2004–2014) (2015, background): “Bialystok et al. included items that had up to five phonemes in a syllable, which is possible in English but not in Cantonese. In other words, the study compared Hong Kong children (Cantonese-dominant) with the other groups using a measurement involving phonological structures that they might not be”
• English Language Learners and Academic Achievement: Revisiting the Threshold Hypothesis (2012, background): “3 At the same time, two ways—linked to the latter oral-literacy skills distinction—in which bilingual experiences may positively contribute to student academic outcomes have been advanced in the literature by Bialystok et al. (2005).”