Reading comprehension and immersion schooling: evidence from component skills

The present research aims to assess literacy acquisition in children becoming bilingual via second language immersion in school. We adopt a cognitive components approach, assessing text-level reading comprehension, a complex literacy skill, as well as underlying cognitive and linguistic components i...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Hansen, Laura Birke, Morales Castillo, Julia, Macizo, Pedro, Duñaibeitia, Jon Andoni, Saldaña Sage, David, Carreiras, Manuel, Fuentes, Luis J, María Teresa, Bajo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universidad Loyola Andalucía
Repositorio:Brújula
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uloyola.es:20.500.12412/5942
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12412/5942
https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12454
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Emergent Bilingualism
Immersion education
Reading comprehension
Cognitive components
Descripción
Sumario:The present research aims to assess literacy acquisition in children becoming bilingual via second language immersion in school. We adopt a cognitive components approach, assessing text-level reading comprehension, a complex literacy skill, as well as underlying cognitive and linguistic components in 144 children aged 7 to 14 (72 immersion bilinguals, 72 controls). Using principal component analysis, a nuanced pattern of results was observed: although emergent bilinguals lag behind their monolingual counterparts on measures of linguistic processing, they showed enhanced performance on a memory and reasoning component. For reading comprehension, no between-group differences were evident, suggesting that selective benefits compensate costs at the level of underlying cognitive components. Overall, the results seem to indicate that literacy skills may be modulated by emerging bilingualism even when no between-group differences are evident at the level of complex skill, and the detection of such differences may depend on the focus and selectivity of the task battery used.