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Purpose: This study explored approaches for measuring vocabulary among bilingual children with varying levels of proficiency in Spanish and English. Method: One hundred fifteen kindergarten and first-grade Spanish–English-speaking children completed measures of vocabulary and sentence repetition in Spanish and English. Scores were derived from their responses to the vocabulary measure: Spanish-only vocabulary, English-only vocabulary, conceptual vocabulary, and total vocabulary. Best language sentence repetition was also obtained. Using both visualization of data and statistical analysis, we tested for potential associations between children's relative language skills in Spanish and English and the scores they received on each of the vocabulary metrics. Results: Participants' single-language vocabulary scores were linearly associated with their relative language scores. Higher relative Spanish language skills corresponded with higher Spanish-only vocabulary scores, and higher English language skills corresponded with higher English-only vocabulary scores. A quadratic association between children's relative language and their conceptual vocabulary scores was observed. Children with more balanced skills in Spanish and English received lower scores for conceptual vocabulary. No association between total vocabulary and relative language was observed. Conclusions: Results revealed evidence of differential test bias for single-language vocabulary scores and conceptual vocabulary scores. Spanish-only vocabulary underestimated knowledge of participants with higher English proficiency, whereas English-only vocabulary underestimated knowledge of participants with higher Spanish proficiency. Conceptual scoring yielded lower values for participants with relatively balanced proficiency in Spanish and English. There is need for further consideration of score and test functioning across the full continuum of bilinguals with dynamic proficiencies in each of their languages. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23796330

Learning to write in a foreign language requires the mastery of L2 discursive items. However, teaching practices in the field have traditionally focused on a grammatical level, leaving other macro–linguistic aspects aside such as coherence and cohesion. In this paper, we are analysing the written academic discourse of a group of intermediate–level students of English to see how textual structures actually affect their final written output in L2. In order to obtain a coherent and cohesive text, explicit language awareness must be fostered in class on a daily basis: the teaching of L2 writing needs to be meaning–based so that text composition becomes more flexible and natural. Título en español: “Más allá del nivel oracional en la E.S.O.: estudio de caso de análisis del discurso de textos en L2”Resumen: Aprender a escribir en una lengua extranjera requiere dominar los elementos discursivos en la L2. Sin embargo, las corrientes pedagógicas de enseñanza de lenguas tienden a centrarse en un nivel gramatical, dejando estos aspectos discursivos de lado tales como la coherencia y la cohesión. En este artículo, analizamos el discurso acadé- mico de un grupo de estudiantes españoles de nivel intermedio de inglés para ver cómo las estructuras textuales influyen en el escrito final en L2. Con el fin de obtener un texto coherente y cohesivo, se necesita trabajar la conciencia lingüística en clase a diario: la enseñanza del inglés como L2 debe ser significativa para que la composición de textos pueda ser más flexible y natural.

Abstract:As early career students face new challenges at university, the relationship between second language skills and academic success depends upon self-perception to a greater extent than previously assumed. Up to the moment, most levelling courses have focused on developing students' skills in specific subjects in order to bridge the gap between the knowledge that the high school alumni have and university teachers expect them to possess. Yet, early academic failure remains elevated. For this reason, we have decided to focus our English Degree levelling course on academic strategies, expectations and procedures with the aim to disclose the role of students' self-perception on second language performance in an academic context. We have designed a two-staged method consisting of a survey and a standardized placement test to measure learners' self-perception. The results of both stages are measured by following a mixed method procedure, combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. Results show that there is a close relationship between students' self-concepts, academic expectations, and final outcomes. When the learning of new contents occurs by means of a foreign language, the implications of learners' confidence and their academic awareness are even clearer. Therefore, we conclude that learners' self-concepts, and awareness of their academic expectations should play a key role in initial undergraduate training.