Predicting writing development in dual language instructional contexts: exploring cross‐linguistic relationships

Abstract

This study examined whether decoding and linguistic comprehension abilities, broadly defined by the Simple View of Reading, in grade 1 each uniquely predicted the grade 6 writing performance of English-speaking children (n = 76) who were educated bilingually in both English their first language and French, a second language. Prediction was made from (1) English to English; (2) French to French; and (3) English to French. Results showed that both decoding and linguistic comprehension scores predicted writing accuracy but rarely predicted persuasive writing. Within the linguistic comprehension cluster of tests, Formulating Sentences was a strong consistent within- and between-language predictor of writing accuracy. In practical terms, the present results indicate that early screening for later writing ability using measures of sentence formulation early in students' schooling, in their L1 or L2, can provide greatest predictive power and allow teachers to differentiate instruction in the primary grades. Theoretically, the present results argue that there are correlations between reading-related abilities and writing abilities not only within the same language but also across languages, adding to the growing body of evidence for facilitative cross-linguistic relationships between bilinguals' developing languages.

Early Indicators of Later English Reading Comprehension Outcomes Among Children From Spanish-Speaking Homes

“…Other researchers (August, Carlo, Dressler, & Snow, 2005; Mancilla-Martinez & Lesaux, 2010) have reached this conclusion, but the specificity of the evidence generated from this study makes this call all the more pressing. Indeed, our results align with recent work by Savage, Kozakewich, Genesee, Haigh, and Erdos (2017) who found that early (grade 1) language screening of English-French bilingual students in the primary grades predicted later (grade 6) writing outcomes, suggesting that language development instruction may represent a promising mechanism by which to support reading and writing outcomes among bilingual learners.…”

The Impact of Orthography on Text Production in Three Languages: Catalan, English, and Spanish

“…Thirdly, future studies should include a measure or a range of measures of oral language. Although existing studies typically report weak to moderate correlations between measures of oral language and the length and quality of children's written products, the role of oral language in written text production should not be minimized as recent evidence suggests that oral sentence fluency supports written text generation over time and across languages (Savage et al, 2017). Fourthly, we depict development using cross-sectional data, longitudinal data are needed to fully establish the direction of the relationship between the different variables.…”

Written verb use and diversity in children with Developmental Language Disorder: stepping stones to academic writing

“…Oral formulated sentence skills, tested with a standardised assessment, predict written text generation over time and across languages (Savage, Kozakewich, Genesee, Erdos, & Haigh, 2017) and predict, as well, written grammatical skills in children with DLD and Autism Spectrum Disorder (Dockrell, Ricketts, Charman, & Lindsay, 2014). Written sentence generation has been reported to be a sensitive and specific measure to identify struggling writers and is strongly predicted by oral sentence skills (Dockrell et al, 2019).…”

“…Multiple linear regression was used to explore which factors predicted children's written use of verbs. Building on previous research (Dockrell, Connelly, & Arfè, 2019;Savage et al, 2017) The final sample of children used in this study was selected to ensure that the two writing prompts used were balanced across each of the groups and so consisted of 90 children. The children comprised three groups: n = 30 children with a diagnosis of DLD (20 boys and 10 girls) with a mean age of 9;11 (range 9;5 to 10;6), n = 30 matched for CA with a mean age of 9:10 (range 9:6 to 10:5) and n = 30 LAb group with a mean chronological age of 8:1 (range 6:8 to 8:10) who were matched with the DLD group for raw scores on an oral sentence production task.…”

“…For both the number of verbs produced and verb diversity, the oral formulated sentences measure accounted for significant variance. The oral formulated sentences task may be a good predictor of written verb production since it requires children to produce oral language in a specific semantic and contextually constrained situation perhaps in a similar way demanded when responding to a written prompt (Savage et al, 2017).…”