Jill Leafstedt

Literacy and Cognitive Functioning in Bilingual and Nonbilingual Children at or Not at Risk for Reading Disabilities

The authors determined whether the cognitive processes that underlie second-language acquisition difficulties are the same as those that underlie reading difficulties. First-grade (N = 101) bilingual and nonbilingual children were administered a battery of measures in Spanish and English. English word identification and vocabulary were predicted by a language-general working-memory (WM) factor, whereas English pseudoword reading was predicted by Spanish pseudoword reading and WM. The results also showed that (a) children proficient in language were better able to access resources from WM and (b) children with reading disabilities (RD) performed poorly on Spanish measures of short-term memory. In general, second-language difficulties are related to accessing a language-independent WM system, whereas language-specific phonological memory deficits underlie RD.

Crossover of Phonological Processing Skills: A Study of Spanish-Speaking Students in Two Instructional Settings

This study investigated three questions: Do phonological processes show cross-linguistic transfer? How does the language of instruction influence the relationship between phonological processes and decoding? Does performance on Spanish and English phonological processing tasks similarly predict English decoding for the same English learners (ELs)? We studied first-grade ELs who had been enrolled for 2 years in two programs that differed by language of instruction (English only and bilingual). Phonological processing skills were examined following a theory of core phonological processing deficits that postulates that three related constructs—phonological awareness, phonological coding, and phonological recoding—are the major components of phonological processing. The results indicate that (a) phonological processes do exhibit cross-linguistic transfer in young ELs; (b) phonological awareness might best be conceptualized as comprising two developmentally overlapping components; (c) language of instruction influences English and Spanish word reading and Spanish pseudoword decoding, but not English pseudoword decoding; and (d) phonological awareness is the only theoretical phonological processing construct significantly related to all English and Spanish reading tasks.

Response to Intervention for English Learners: Examining Models for Determining Response and Nonresponse.

Using extant data, the purpose of this study is to examine methods for determining response to intervention (RTI) in a sample of kindergarten English Learners (ELs). Three commonly used methods for determining RTI—(a) benchmark criteria, (b) slope discrepancy, and (c) dual discrepancy—are investigated. Participants included 117 ELs. Students were administered pretests and then provided intervention in phonological awareness and phonics in small groups. Progress was monitored weekly on two Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills measures, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency and Nonsense Word Fluency. Results indicate that there is very little overlap across the three methods and across the two measures in determining response and nonresponse for kindergarten ELs. The results of the study have implications for continued research regarding response of ELs as well as practical implications regarding which methods and measures should be used to determine response.