Oral and written language abilities in young Spanish/English bilinguals

The purpose of this study was to compare oral and written language abilities in English and Spanish of young bilinguals residing in the USA. Sixty-two participants (mean age = 23.7; SD = 3.50), consisting of 42 bilinguals (born of Spanish-speaking parents) and 20 English monolinguals, were administered a battery of 15 language tasks. Bilinguals were divided into two groups: (a) US-born (simultaneous bilinguals who had been exposed to English and Spanish since birth and educated primarily in English) and (b) Latin American-born (early sequential bilinguals who were educated in Spanish and English, although exposed to Spanish at birth and to English before the age of 10). Higher lexical ability was demonstrated in English compared to Spanish in bilinguals. Performance in grammar tests of the two languages was inconsistent. Reading/writing ability in English was similar for participants born in the USA and in Latin America; however, participants who were born in Latin America had significantly higher scores for Spanish reading/writing tasks. When comparing performance in English tests, it was found that scores for bilingual participants were similar to those of English monolinguals. The current study directly compares oral and written language abilities in two subgroups of young Spanish/English bilinguals. Three language dimensions are studied: lexicon/grammar; oral/written language; and language knowledge/language use. Our results suggest that bilingualism does not interfere with normal linguistic ability in English. The current study was carried out in a specific bilingual context. Generalization of these results should be done with caution