The construct validation of certain components of English and Korean writing in children participating in either a two-way immersion program or monolingual classes: A writing assessment and latent variable approach

This study evaluates the construct validity of four components of writing in Korean and in English based on the responses produced by bilingual and monolingual children. A latent variable approach, favored because of its ability to separate error from meaningful effects, is used to carry out a construct validation with EQS; interrelated hypotheses implied by theory and a writing assessment are sequentially tested.;Compositions were collected from students in grades 2–4 in a Korean/English dual language program, consisting of two ethno-linguistic groups, and peers from monolingual classes in Los Angeles and Seoul. Letter-writing and story-writing tasks equivalent for both English and Korean were developed. For each task, parallel picture prompts and counter-balanced designs were administered. Componential scoring evaluated four writing constructs (or traits) content, grammar, spelling, and text length separately for Korean and English compositions while using common criteria.;Factor models were tested separately for each language. The four writing traits (above) are statistically identified as distinguishable yet inter-correlated factors. A hierarchical relationship is found in which the covariance among the writing factors are explained by a higher-order factor. Variances on the higher- and first-order factors are larger for Korean, implying greater individual differences among students who took the Korean writing test than among those taking the equivalent test in English.;Within each language, multiple group analyses reveal that the identical factor pattern holds across grades, gender, groups defined by parallel picture use, and immersion/monolingual groups. Individual differences in writing performance are explained as more of a function of the writing-trait factors than of the writing tasks. Measurement properties (loadings, intercepts) were tested for their cross-group invariance to see if assessment procedure had actually applied in the same way across groups above.;An external stage of investigation compared the performance as influenced by student background characteristics; rich information is detailed. At the same time, factor-mean analyses in covariance structure using dummy group predictors and their utility are discussed didactically. In cross-language simultaneous analyses, the English writing factors and the corresponding Korean writing factors are found to be largely independent.;Implications are discussed in the following domains: writing constructs and instruction, quality of the assessment instrumentation, and considerations of societal, practical, and attitudinal factors as a powerful hidden variable in the degree of biliteral development. We hope the methodology and the substantive findings provide a heuristic for future research.