The development of pre-reading and reading knowledge in English and Spanish in a Dual Language Education context

The goals of the present study were intended to address the phonological fluency (phonological awareness), decoding, and reading fluency of students attending a Dual Language Education (DLE) program and an English Only program. The goals were three-fold. The first goal was to examine the impact of language arts instruction and being in a DLE program (or not) on English reading development. The second goal was intended to examine the influence of language arts instruction and the exposure to two languages 50% of the day on the development of phonological fluency (awareness), decoding, and reading in English and Spanish in a DLE program. The last goal was to learn about the connection between first and second language phonological fluency (phonological awareness) and decoding to first and second language reading development. Seventy kindergarten students participated in this study. Thirty five students attended a DLE program and received instruction in English and Spanish 50% of the day. The other thirty five students attended English Only programs and received instruction only in English. The measures consisted of Spanish and English phonological fluency (phonological awareness: blending, segmentation, and rhyme), decoding (letter names and letter sounds fluency) and reading fluency tasks. The results indicate that students attending the DLE program outperform their peers attending English Only schools. However, only one task (segmentation) showed statistical significance by program type. Findings with respect to Spanish reading development suggest that all students attending the DLE program are making strong growth in Spanish. Finally, there is evidence that suggests phonological fluency (phonological awareness), decoding (letter names and letter sounds) predicts both English and Spanish reading fluency as early as kindergarten. Results were not consistent across different groups (English learners and English monolinguals). These preliminary findings may provide some understanding of first and second language reading development for students attending DLE and English only programs.