Literacy Acquisition and Achievement in Bilinguals: A cross-linguistic perspective

Vincent Goetry

Two distinct issues will be addressed in the proposed research. The first relates to contradictory findings reported on literacy acquisition in a second language (L2). Indeed, in immersion settings where L2 learners are surrounded by other L2 learners with similar proficiency in the instruction language and are taught to read and write with methods of instruction adapted to their linguistic backgrounds, bilinguals show no persistent delays compared to monolinguals1. Conversely, in submersion settings where L2 learners are a minority in a classroom of native speakers of their instruction language and are taught to read and write with monolingual-oriented methods of instruction, recurrent and pervasive delays in phonological development and literacy acquisition are reported2,3,4. These inconsistent results could be induced by the very different educational settings distinguishing the immersion and submersion contexts. Alternatively, a variety of other factors may explain these differences, e.g. contrasted socio-economical and socio-cultural status (SES), and/or contrasted languages of instructions. Regarding SES, studies with bilinguals in submersion typically involve ethnic minority children with low SES, whose native language and culture are not supported (subtractive bilingualism5), while research conducted with bilinguals in immersion typically involve middle-class English-native Canadians whose home language and culture are highly supported and who learn to read in their native language at home (additive bilingualism)6. We will examine the development of reading and writing abilities in a group of children displaying intermediate characteristics, i.e. children of low SES enrolled in a French immersion program in the United States. If successful literacy acquisition within the bilingual context is influenced by SES and home literacy factors more than by educational settings, the developmental profiles of literacy acquisition of the children schooled in the U.S. school should be similar to the ones previously described for bilinguals schooled in submersion settings4, despite the fact that they are schooled in an immersion setting. Regarding the characteristics of the language of instruction, studies on bilinguals in immersion often involve children schooled in French, a language with a transparent orthographic system, while studies on bilinguals in submersion usually involve children schooled in English, a language with an opaque orthography and various stress patterns. Literacy acquisition in English might be particularly challenging for non-native children who may have difficulties in capitalizing on their lexicon (too poor to allow lexical search strategies compensating the opaque orthographic system7,8,9), as well as in processing stress patterns of words in reading and writing10. These difficulties may be less critical to literacy development in French. If this is the case, some negative effects of bilingualism previously reported in English submersion settings cannot be generalized to other languages. To further examine the effects of orthographic transparency on reading development in a second language, we will conduct comparisons between two groups of Canadian bilingual children enrolled in immersion programs, i.e. English-native children immersed in French and French-native children immersed in English. If this is the case, some negative effects of bilingualism previously reported in English submersion settings may result from the specific orthographic properties of English rather than from bilingualism itself, and therefore cannot be generalized to other languages. Despite similar educational settings, these two groups should show quantitative (rate of development) and qualitative (strategies) differences in reading development. The second, more general, issue that will be addressed in the present project relates to the separation of the orthographic knowledge from both languages in bilingual children. The development of fast and accurate reading and spelling abilities implies the computation of statistical information on written words11. In the bilingual context, lack of separation between the two languages may hamper the development of reading and writing due to insufficient inhibition of the inappropriate language12,13. To examine whether the pace of reading and spelling development in the two languages is influenced by the ability to compute separate orthographic lexicons, we will also present the two groups of Canadian children mentioned above with tasks examining the separation of the two languages as well as with tasks examining the computation of within-language statistical properties. We expect struggling readers to show less differentiation between the two languages than good readers, and individual differences in lexicon separation to be related to individual differences in reading and spelling abilities. The findings of the proposed research will allow us to reconcile some contradictory findings reported in previous studies conducted on bilingual children, and will therefore contribute to our understanding of the cognitive consequences of bilingualism on literacy acquisition. As well, the findings of the proposed research have educational implications for the teaching of reading and writing to second language learners and to monolinguals. More precisely, the first study should provide indirect evidence regarding the differential effects of immersion and submersion on literacy development. The second study should bring evidence to bear on several issues, i.e. the instructional techniques most adapted to the language of instruction, the question of when to introduce L2 reading in immersion programs, and the question of the relationship between the separation of the two languages and literacy achievement. This could help develop better methods for the teaching of reading and writing, and contribute to the development of intervention programs for children with reading difficulties.

About Vincent Goetry

I graduated in Psychology in 1998 at the Free University of Brussels (Belgium). During my studies, a two-year position as a research assistant of Dr. José Morais allowed me to conduct studies on reading in skilled adults and reading-impaired children. I conducted my graduate thesis on rhythmic cues for speech segmentation in French-Dutch adult bilinguals, under the supervision or Dr. Régine Kolinsky and Dr. José Morais. For my Master's thesis, defended in 2000, I conducted a longitudinal study on the development of phonological representations in French-native children schooled in Dutch and Dutch-native children schooled in French in Belgium. My Ph.D. research, funded by the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research and defended in May 2002, consisted of a three-year longitudinal investigation of literacy acquisition in bilingual children who attend school in a second language in Belgium. Since September 2002, I also co-supervise a three-years longitudinal study funded by the Belgian Minister of Education, which focus on various aspects of linguistic and literacy development in French-native children enrolled in immersion programs in Dutch. During the summer of 2002, The Visiting Junior Scholarship Award from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies allowed me to visit Dr. Linda Siegel from the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada). Since October 2002, I occupy a research position at the Faculty of Education at Queen's University in Kingston (Canada), under the supervision of Dr. Lesly Wade-Woolley. My current research projects focus on the contribution of stress processing abilities to English literacy acquisition in Spanish- and Mandarin-native speakers, as well as on the relative functionality of reading units (syllable, onset-rime) in reading development in French monolinguals and in English-native children schooled in a French immersion program.