Knowledge of Orthographic Features in Spanish Among Bilingual Children

Orthographic features of English spelling can be ordered according to a developmental progression (Viise, 1994). Such features, when scored dichotomously and arranged according to difficulty, form a scale that is unidimensional and cumulative. The purpose of the present study is to determine if simi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bilingual research journal 2002-07, Vol.26 (2), p.295-307
Main Authors: Estes, Thomas H., Richards, Herbert C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bilingual Students
Bilingual Teachers
Bilingualism
Children
Early Reading
Elementary Education
Elementary School Students
English language
Grade 5
Language Acquisition
Measures (Individuals)
Orthography
Phoneme Grapheme Correspondence
Phonetics
Second Language Learning
Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish Speaking
Spelling
Standardized Tests
Teaching Methods
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Summary:Orthographic features of English spelling can be ordered according to a developmental progression (Viise, 1994). Such features, when scored dichotomously and arranged according to difficulty, form a scale that is unidimensional and cumulative. The purpose of the present study is to determine if similar graphophonemic features exist in Spanish orthography and develop an instrument to assess them. A Test of Spanish Word Features (TSWF) was devised and pilot tested on 129 elementary school children. After revision, the instrument assessed 12 Spanish word features through the spellings of 50 exemplar words clustered into groups of five. The TSWF and its English counterpart were administered to 196 first, second, third, fourth, and fifth graders. Individual spelling features in Spanish proved to be internally consistent (reliable), but, when arranged according to difficulty, formed a scale that was only marginally cumulative. Compared to those of English, the Spanish word features varied little in complexity, and the evidence that children mastered them in a particular order was less compelling.
ISSN:1523-5882
1523-5890
DOI:10.1080/15235882.2002.10668712