English Language Proficiency and Early School Attainment Among Children Learning English as an Additional Language

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Abstract

Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) often experience lower academic attainment than monolingual peers. In this study, teachers provided ratings of English language proficiency and social, emotional, and behavioral functioning for 782 children with EAL and 6,485 monolingual children in reception year (ages 4–5). Academic attainment was assessed in reception and Year 2 (ages 6–7). Relative to monolingual peers with comparable English language proficiency, children with EAL displayed fewer social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties in reception, were equally likely to meet curriculum targets in reception, and were more likely to meet targets in Year 2. Academic attainment and social, emotional, and behavioral functioning in children with EAL are associated with English language proficiency at school entry.

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Psychometric Properties of the Parent and Teacher Versions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for 4- to 12-Year-Olds: A Review

Lisanne L. Stone, Roy Otten, Rutger C. M. E. Engels … (2010)

Since its development, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been widely used in both research and practice. The SDQ screens for positive and negative psychological attributes. This review aims to provide an overview of the psychometric properties of the SDQ for 4- to 12-year-olds. Results from 48 studies (N = 131,223) on reliability and validity of the parent and teacher SDQ are summarized quantitatively and descriptively. Internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and inter-rater agreement are satisfactory for the parent and teacher versions. At subscale level, the reliability of the teacher version seemed stronger compared to that of the parent version. Concerning validity, 15 out of 18 studies confirmed the five-factor structure. Correlations with other measures of psychopathology as well as the screening ability of the SDQ are sufficient. This review shows that the psychometric properties of the SDQ are strong, particularly for the teacher version. For practice, this implies that the use of the SDQ as a screening instrument should be continued. Longitudinal research studies should investigate predictive validity. For both practice and research, we emphasize the use of a multi-informant approach.

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Interpreting the early language trajectories of children from low-SES and language minority homes: implications for closing achievement gaps.

Erika Hoff (2013)

On average, children from low socioeconomic status (SES) homes and children from homes in which a language other than English is spoken have language development trajectories that are different from those of children from middle-class, monolingual English-speaking homes. Children from low-SES and language minority homes have unique linguistic strengths, but many reach school age with lower levels of English language skill than do middle-class, monolingual children. Because early differences in English oral language skill have consequences for academic achievement, low levels of English language skill constitute a deficit for children about to enter school in the United States. Declaring all developmental trajectories to be equally valid would not change the robust relation between English oral language skills and academic achievement and would not help children with poor English skills to be successful in school. Remedies aimed at supporting the development of the English skills required for academic success need not and should not entail devaluing or diminishing children's other language skills.

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The Inhibitory Advantage in Bilingual Children Revisited

Jon Andoni Duñabeitia, Juan Hernández, Eneko Antón … (2013)

In recent decades several authors have suggested that bilinguals exhibit enhanced cognitive control as compared to monolinguals and some proposals suggest that this main difference between monolinguals and bilinguals is related to bilinguals’ enhanced capacity of inhibiting irrelevant information. This has led to the proposal of the so-called bilingual advantage in inhibitory skills. However, recent studies have cast some doubt on the locus and generality of the alleged bilingual advantage in inhibitory skills. In the current study we investigated inhibitory skills in a large sample of 252 monolingual and 252 bilingual children who were carefully matched on a large number of indices. We tested their performance in a verbal Stroop task and in a nonverbal version of the same task (the number size-congruency task). Results were unequivocal and showed that bilingual and monolingual participants performed equally in these two tasks across all the indices or markers of inhibitory skills explored. Furthermore, the lack of differences between monolingual and bilingual children extended to all the age ranges tested and was not modulated by any of the independent factors investigated. In light of these results, we conclude that bilingual children do not exhibit any specific advantage in simple inhibitory tasks as compared to monolinguals.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Katie E. Whiteside: katie.whiteside.2013@live.rhul.ac.uk

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Child Dev

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Child Dev

Journal ID (doi): 10.1111/(ISSN)1467-8624

Journal ID (publisher-id): CDEV

Title: Child Development

Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc. (Hoboken )

ISSN (Print): 0009-3920

ISSN (Electronic): 1467-8624

Publication date (Electronic): 20 September 2016

Publication date (Print): May-Jun 2017

Volume: 88

Issue: 3 ( doiID: 10.1111/cdev.2017.88.issue-3 )

Pages: 812-827

Affiliations

[ ¹ ]Royal Holloway University of London

[ ² ]University College London

Author notes

[*] [* ]Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Katie E. Whiteside, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom. Electronic mail may be sent to katie.whiteside.2013@ 123456live.rhul.ac.uk .

Article

Publisher ID: CDEV12615

DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12615

PMC ID: 5434859

PubMed ID: 27647334

SO-VID: b185788c-8e47-4b99-aafd-94330d769e27

License:

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Page count

Figures: 3, Tables: 7, Pages: 16, Words: 11742

Funding

Funded by: Wellcome Trust

Award ID: WT094836AIA

Funded by: Royal Holloway, University of London

Custom metadata

source-schema-version-number 2.0

component-id cdev12615

cover-date May/June 2017

details-of-publishers-convertor Converter:WILEY_ML3GV2_TO_NLMPMC version:5.0.9 mode:remove_FC converted:17.05.2017

ScienceOpen disciplines: Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry

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English Language Proficiency and Early School Attainment Among Children Learning English as an Additional Language

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Most cited references 27

Psychometric Properties of the Parent and Teacher Versions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for 4- to 12-Year-Olds: A Review

Interpreting the early language trajectories of children from low-SES and language minority homes: implications for closing achievement gaps.

The Inhibitory Advantage in Bilingual Children Revisited

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