Isiris Acevedo-Almodovar
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Research Mentor(s): Ioulia Kovelman
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Psychology and CHGD / LSA
Program: UROPF
Session: Session 7 (4:40pm – 5:30pm)
Authors: Isiris Acevedo-Almodovar, Alejandra Gonzalez Manso, Rachel Eggleston, Ioulia Kovelman
Abstract
This study aims to establish the relationship between Spanish and English morphological awareness in Spanish-English bilingual children. Morphological awareness is the understanding of units of meaning in language (i.e., morphemes) that is important throughout reading acquisition, especially in grades three and up when the majority of words children read contain multiple morphemes. Behavioral data were collected from a diverse sample of Spanish and English bilinguals (N = 50; M = 8.51 years old), 29 female and 21 male participants ranging from 6-11 years old with low socioeconomic status. Some of these children’s caregivers reported that they have struggled with language or reading. Five tasks were administered to measure morphological awareness: Spanish and English auditory morphological awareness using an oddball paradigm; English visual morphological awareness; Spanish and English Early Lexical Morphology Measure (ELMM); Spanish and English Vocabulary. We predict that the morphological awareness of Spanish and English in bilingual children is correlated. Although bilingualism is common, little research has established this crucial aspect of reading development. This study could aid schools with knowledge on how their bilingual students gain reading acquisition and better the resources provided for them.
