Study To Investigate Development Of English Literacy In Spanish-Speaking Children

July 13, 2000
University Park, Pa--A team of Penn State professors will study the development of English literacy in Spanish-speaking preschoolers, thanks to a new five-year $2,079,940 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

"Becoming literate is a multifaceted skill that all children must accomplish. Literacy becomes more complex for Spanish speaking children because they begin the literacy process with varied language experiences," says Dr. Carol S. Hammer, principal investigator for the study and assistant professor of communication disorders in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development.

Children may be raised in a home in which Spanish is the only language spoken and may become bilingual sequentially when they enter an educational setting. Others learn both languages simultaneously, explains Hammer. Literacy development may be further complicated by differences between the home and school environments.

This study will investigate differences in the rate and quality of language and literacy development between children learning Spanish and English sequentially and simultaneously, says Dr. Adele W. Miccio, co-principal investigator for the study and assistant professor of communication disorders in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development.

It will also address what factors of oral language development and the environment result in positive and negative literacy outcomes in bilingual children. In addition, the researchers will examine how the specific characteristics of bilingual children’s language systems related to literacy outcomes and how the home environment buffers children against negative outcomes.

To address these questions, this study examines the language development, literacy development, and home environment of 100 children of Puerto Rican descent who attend Head Start. Children acquiring Spanish and English sequentially and children acquiring the two languages simultaneously will be studied from the ages of four to six years.

"The results of this investigation will inform us of the patterns of bilingual language development that result in better literacy abilities and the specific factors that should be targeted in intervention to facilitate better outcomes," says Hammer.

Dr. Almeida Jacqueline Toribio, associate professor of Spanish Linguistics in Penn State's College of Liberal Arts, is a collaborating investigator on the project. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is part of the National Institutes of Health.

Editors: For more information, contact Dr. Hammer at or 814-865-1849; or Dr. Miccio at or 814-863-2018.