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Purpose: The present study examined the impact of environmental factors (socioeconomic status [SES], the percent of language exposure to English and to Spanish, and primary caregivers' vocabulary knowledge) on bilingual children's vocabulary skills.
Method: Vocabulary skills were measured in 58 bilingual children between the ages of 5 and 7 who spoke Spanish as their native language and English as their second language. Data related to language environment in the home, specifically, the percent of language exposure to each language and SES, were obtained from primary caregiver interviews. Primary caregivers' vocabulary knowledge was measured directly using expressive and receptive vocabulary assessments in both languages.
Results: Multiple regression analyses indicated that primary caregivers' vocabulary knowledge, the child's percent exposure to each language, and SES were robust predictors of children's English, but not Spanish, vocabulary skills.
Conclusion: These findings indicate that in the early school ages, primary caregiver vocabulary skills have a stronger impact on bilingual children's second-language than native-language vocabulary.
Key Words: bilingualism, children, language
Numerous studies have demonstrated the impor- tance of vocabulary skills for language and cog- nitive development (e.g., Dickinson & Tabors, 2001; Duncan et ah, 2007; Stanovich, 1986), and literacy outcomes are especially sensitive to individual differences in early vocabulary knowledge (e.g., Mason, Stewart, Peterman, & Dunning, 1992; Morris, Bloodgood, & Perney, 2003; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Therefore, it is imperative to identify environmental factors that can shape the development of children's vocab- ulary skills. Research has demonstrated that bilingual chil- dren consistently score below their monolingual peers on single-language measures of vocabulary (e.g., Ben Zeev, 1977; Bialystok, Luk, Peets, & Yang, 2010; Hemsley, Holm, & Dodd, 2006; Leseman, 2000); thus, it is especially important to consider factors that may contribute to the development of vocabulary skills in each language in bilin- gual children.
Research has pointed to a few factors that may play an influential role in vocabulary development. In research with monolingual children, socioeconomic status (SES) has been suggested as an important predictor of children's vocabulary development (e.g., Hoff, 2003; Hoff & Naigles, 2002; Huttenlocher, Haight, Bryke, Seltzer, & Lyons, 1991; Naigles & Hoff-Ginsberg, 1998). This relationship between SES and children's language abilities is thought to be mediated by the effect that SES has on...