BILINGUAL EDUCATION PRACTICES

Bilingual Education Practices: An Annotated Bibliography

Nancy Delgado
University of St. Thomas

BILINGUAL EDUCATION PRACTICES

Bilingual Education Practices: An Annotated Bibliography

Feinauer, E., Hall-Kenyon, K. M., & Davison, K. C. (2013). Cross-Language transfer of early
literacy skills: An examination of young learners in a two-way bilingual immersion
elementary school. Reading Psychology, 34(5), 436-460.
Feinauer, Hall-Kenyon, and Davison investigated the relationship between first-language
literacy skills and the acquisition of second-language reading skills for K-2 grade students
enrolled in a Spanish-English two-way bilingual program. The study included 174 students. The
purpose of the study was to investigate the transfer of literacy skills from the first language (L1)
to the second language (L2) over one year of instruction. In order to see the effects of instruction
in L2, it was necessary to take into account the linguistic and literacy knowledge in which the
students were dominant.
To test their hypothesis, they administered subtests to 174 k-2 grade students using the
Woodcock-Munoz in L1 and L2. The researchers then divided the participants into four groups
based on their language dominance. They found that 89 were English-dominant and 40 were
Spanish-dominant. The rest of the students were identified as bilingual learners. Their results are
interesting because they compare to other studies that found that English dominant students came
from higher income homes and higher education levels by their parents. In contrast, the Spanish
dominant students came from lower income homes and lower level of parental education. The
bilingual students taught in English also came from higher income and higher education levels
from home; as a result, they had higher academic scores. A limitation to this study is the small
sample size of students who qualified as bilingual and were taught in L2. Their findings support
the theory of cross-linguistic transfer from L1 to L2 across literacy skills for both monolingual
and bilingual students included in this study

BILINGUAL EDUCATION PRACTICES

Mndez, L. M., Crais, E. R., Castro, D. C., & Kainz, K. (2015). A culturally and linguistically
responsive vocabulary approach for young Latino dual language learners. Journal Of
Speech, Language & Hearing Research, 58(1), 93-106.
Mndez, Crais, Castro and Kainz sought to examine the role of the language of
vocabulary instruction. To focus the discussion, the authors point out that oral vocabulary, is
associated with reading outcomes and is a strong predictor of reading achievement in
monolingual children through fourth grade and beyond.
The study included 42 dual language Spanish-speaking preschoolers randomly assigned
to either an English-only instruction group or Spanish-bilingual group. During their study, 30
English words were presented during small group three times a week for five weeks. Results
were measured by administering assessment at the end of the five weeks. The results of the study
showed that children receiving instruction in the Spanish bilingual program had significantly
higher posttest scores than those receiving the English-only instruction.
Finally, the results provided additional evidence of the benefits of strategically combining
the first and second language to promote vocabulary development in this population. The authors
argue that previous research correlate with their findings that there is no significant advantage to
using an English-only approach and it does not delay the acquisition of the second language. A
limitation, as noted by the authors is that the study examined the role of the language of
vocabulary instruction outside of the preschool classroom instruction. Therefore, the
interpretations and implications are limited to comparison of instructional delivery. Further
research is necessary about the classroom instruction approach in a bilingual modality. An
important implication of the findings, consistent with other research, is that bilingual instruction
does not seem to impede the development of the second language abilities.

BILINGUAL EDUCATION PRACTICES

Proctor, C. P., Silverman, R., Harring, J., & Montecillo, C. (2012). The role of vocabulary depth
in predicting reading comprehension among English monolingual and Spanish-English
bilingual children in elementary school. Reading & Writing, 25(7), 1635-1664.
Proctor, Silverman, Harring, and Montecillo sought to track down the role of vocabulary
depth in reading comprehension among a diverse sample of monolingual and bilingual children
in grades 2-4. The authors found previous research that showed that syntactic awareness was
significantly related to fluency and comprehension, which indicated that lower levels of syntactic
awareness were associated with decreasing fluency and comprehension.
The authors followed 294 students from three schools in the Mid-Atlantic and three
schools in a North-Eastern district. The students were assessed at the beginning and end of one
school year on a variety of language and literacy measures; word identification, breadth of
vocabulary, morphology, semantics, syntax, and reading comprehension. Bilingual children were
assessed in English and Spanish. Monolingual students were assessed in English only and the
sample size comprised of nearly 50% of African-Americans and Anglo.
The authors identified some limitations with their study. The study did not investigate
socio-economic and socio-emotional factors including, immigration experiences, and long-term
exposure to institutionalized discrimination. Additionally, the study did not explore the impact
of language of instruction on the childrens development.
Ultimately, comprehension involves not just decoding words and knowing what they
mean but how they are connected in language to make meaning. The results presented in this
study open important questions on the comprehension process for bilingual and monolingual
students and the instructional approaches educators can take to understand reading achievement
among diverse populations.

BILINGUAL EDUCATION PRACTICES

Ross, S. G., & Begeny, J. C. (2011). Improving Latino, English language learners' reading
fluency: The effects of small-group and one-on-one intervention. Psychology in the
Schools, 48(6), 604-618.
Ross and Begeny examined the effects of a one-on-one (1/1) and small-group
(SG) reading fluency intervention, both implemented with Spanish-speaking ELLs. The primary
purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative effects on an evidence-based, time-efficient 1/1,
and SG intervention for ELLs with reading difficulties. First, they asked how reading fluency is a
critical yet neglected component of effective reading instruction. Second, they wanted to show an
urgent need in the U.S to improve ELLs reading abilities. Finally, they wanted to expose the
minimal research that has examined the effects of interventions designed to improve ELLs
reading fluency.
The authors selected five second-grade students from one rural school in the Southeast.
Each students first language was Spanish, and each received ESL services at their school.
Socioeconomic data was not provided in this study. Two assessments were administered at the
beginning and end of the eight-week study to understand the potential benefit of students
receiving the interventions. Throughout the project, graduate and undergraduate psychology
students served as the trainers and were responsible for implementing intervention procedures
and assessing student performance.
The researchers found that all students improved on at least one of the two standardized
reading measures that were administered at pre- and post-project. Their findings match other
research suggesting that fluency-based 1/1 interventions are effective for many students with
reading difficulties. A major limitation to the study is the small sample size and the short time of
the interventions. A short eight weeks is not enough time to measure success of an intervention.

BILINGUAL EDUCATION PRACTICES

Nancy Delgado
Self-Reflection on Revision
December 9, 2015
The Educational Research course taught me how to write using a scholarly tone. This
course provided graduate level instruction in writing, evaluating scholarly literature, analyzing
data, and developing research-based recommendations in my field of study. The language and
mechanics lessons were very beneficial to me. I found out I needed to sharpen my skills of
revision and editing using commas, colons, and semicolons. I now feel more confident about
writing at the graduate school level. This course was very beneficial to me although at times it
seemed very time consuming and labor intensive. I chose the annotated bibliography assignment
because I feel it was a culmination of my research and the countless hours I spent reading studies
and analyzing their implications. I feel that it was well written document but the writing was
limited due to the one-page restriction. For my revision, I will revise and edit further focusing on
mechanics as well as adding the strengths of each study.

BILINGUAL EDUCATION PRACTICES

Final Revised Annotated Bibliography

Bilingual Education Practices: An Annotated Bibliography
Feinauer, E., Hall-Kenyon, K. M., & Davison, K. C. (2013). Cross-Language transfer of early
literacy skills: An examination of young learners in a two-way bilingual immersion
elementary school. Reading Psychology, 34(5), 436-460.
Feinauer, Hall-Kenyon, and Davison investigated the relationship between first-language
literacy skills and the acquisition of second-language reading skills for K-2 grade students
enrolled in a Spanish-English two-way bilingual program. The study included 174 students. The
purpose of the study was to investigate the transfer of literacy skills from the first language (L1)
to the second language (L2) over one year of instruction. In order to see the effects of instruction
in L2, it was necessary to take into account the linguistic and literacy knowledge in which the
students were dominant.
To test their hypothesis, they administered subtests to 174 k-2 grade students using the
Woodcock-Munoz in L1 and L2. The researchers then divided the participants into four groups
based on their language dominance. They found that 89 were English-dominant, and 40 were
Spanish-dominant. The rest of the students were identified as bilingual learners. Their results are
interesting because they compare to other studies that found that English dominant students came
from higher income homes and higher education levels by their parents. In contrast, the Spanish
dominant students came from lower income homes and lower level of parental education. The
bilingual students taught in English also came from higher income and higher education levels
from home; as a result, they had higher academic scores. A limitation to this study is the small
sample size of students who qualified as bilingual and were taught in L2. Their findings support
the theory of cross-linguistic transfer from L1 to L2 across literacy skills for both monolingual

BILINGUAL EDUCATION PRACTICES

and bilingual students included in this study. A strength of Feinauer et al. is that the researchers
studied the instruction that took place in L1 and L2 in a dual bilingual classroom for the course
of one school year. The results from their analyses provided evidence of cross-linguistic transfer
from the L1 to the L2 over one year of instruction regardless of socioeconomic status.

Mndez, L. M., Crais, E. R., Castro, D. C., & Kainz, K. (2015). A culturally and linguistically
responsive vocabulary approach for young Latino dual language learners. Journal Of
Speech, Language & Hearing Research, 58(1), 93-106.
Mndez, Crais, Castro and Kainz sought to examine the role of the language of
vocabulary instruction. To focus the discussion, the authors point out that oral vocabulary is
associated with reading outcomes and is a strong predictor of reading achievement in
monolingual children through fourth grade and beyond.
The study included 42 dual language Spanish-speaking preschoolers randomly assigned
to either an English-only instruction group or Spanish-bilingual group. During their study, 30
English words were presented during small group three times a week for five weeks. Results
were measured by administering assessments at the end of the five weeks. The results of the
study showed children receiving instruction in the Spanish bilingual program had significantly
higher posttest scores than those receiving the English-only instruction.
Finally, the results provided additional evidence of the benefits of strategically combining the
first and second language to promote vocabulary development in this population. The authors
argue that previous research correlate with their findings that there is no significant advantage to
using an English-only approach, and it does not delay the acquisition of the second language. A
limitation, as noted by the authors, is that the study examined the role of the language of

BILINGUAL EDUCATION PRACTICES

vocabulary instruction outside of the preschool classroom instruction. Therefore, the

interpretations and implications are limited to comparison of instructional delivery. Further
research is necessary about the classroom instruction approach in a bilingual modality. An
important implication of the findings, consistent with other research, is that bilingual instruction
does not seem to impede the development of the second language abilities. A strength in the
study is the important implication of the findings, consistent with other
research, is that bilingual vocabulary instruction does not seem to impede
the development of L2 vocabulary abilities and may support both L2 and L1
vocabulary abilities more effectively than instruction in L2 only.

Proctor, C. P., Silverman, R., Harring, J., & Montecillo, C. (2012). The role of vocabulary depth
in predicting reading comprehension among English monolingual and Spanish-English
bilingual children in elementary school. Reading & Writing, 25(7), 1635-1664.
Proctor, Silverman, Harring, and Montecillo sought to track down the role of vocabulary
depth in reading comprehension among a diverse sample of monolingual and bilingual children
in grades 2-4. The authors found previous research that showed that syntactic awareness was
significantly related to fluency and comprehension, which indicated that lower levels of syntactic
awareness were associated with decreasing fluency and comprehension.
The authors followed 294 students from three schools in the Mid-Atlantic and three
schools in a North-Eastern district. The students were assessed at the beginning and end of one
school year on a variety of language and literacy measures; word identification, breadth of
vocabulary, morphology, semantics, syntax, and reading comprehension. Bilingual children were

BILINGUAL EDUCATION PRACTICES

10

assessed in English and Spanish. Monolingual students were assessed in English only and the
sample size comprised of nearly 50% of African-Americans and Anglo.
The authors identified some limitations with their study. The study did not investigate
socio-economic and socio-emotional factors including, immigration experiences, and long-term
exposure to institutionalized discrimination. Additionally, the study did not explore the impact
of language of instruction on the childrens development.
Ultimately, comprehension involves not just decoding words and knowing what they
mean but how they are connected in language to make meaning. The results presented in this
study open important questions on the comprehension process for bilingual and monolingual
students and the instructional approaches educators can take to understand reading achievement
among diverse populations. A strength in this study is that the researchers noted half the
monolingual student population was comprised of African-American students. It is important to
note that the depth of vocabulary could be a predictor of reading achievement gap among diverse
populations.

Ross, S. G., & Begeny, J. C. (2011). Improving Latino, English language learners' reading
fluency: The effects of small-group and one-on-one intervention. Psychology in the
Schools, 48(6), 604-618.
Ross and Begeny examined the effects of a one-on-one (1/1) and small-group
(SG) reading fluency intervention, both implemented with Spanish-speaking ELLs. The primary
purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative effects on an evidence-based, time-efficient 1/1,
and SG intervention for ELLs with reading difficulties. First, they asked how reading fluency is a
critical yet neglected component of effective reading instruction. Second, they wanted to show an

BILINGUAL EDUCATION PRACTICES

11

urgent need in the U.S to improve ELLs reading abilities. Finally, they wanted to expose the
minimal research that has examined the effects of interventions designed to improve ELLs
reading fluency.
The authors selected five second-grade students from one rural school in the Southeast.
Each students first language was Spanish, and each received ESL services at their school.
Socioeconomic data was not provided in this study. Two assessments were administered at the
beginning and end of the eight-week study to understand the potential benefit of students
receiving the interventions. Throughout the project, graduate and undergraduate psychology
students served as the trainers and were responsible for implementing intervention procedures
and assessing student performance.
The researchers found that all students improved on at least one of the two standardized
reading measures that were administered at pre- and post-project. Their findings match other
research suggesting that fluency-based 1/1 interventions are effective for many students with
reading difficulties. A major limitation to the study is the small sample size and the short time of
the interventions. A short eight weeks is not enough time to measure success of an intervention.
A strength in this study is the clear result of improvement the researchers saw in all five students
even after a short period of time. This can lead us to believe that SG and 1/1 interventions would
be greatly beneficial to our students in our everyday instruction in the classroom.