Cross-Language Relationships between Early Spanish-English Language and Literacy

Addressing multilingual learners’ literacy development requires understanding cross-language relationships between their first and second languages. The current study investigated how Spanish language and literacy skills relate to English language and literacy skills in 106 Spanish-speaking multilingual learners in kindergarten through second grade. Using an achievement test in both Spanish and English, multilevel models revealed three key findings. First, there was partial support for the interdependence continuum: Spanish decoding significantly predicted English decoding (b = 0.73, p < .001), but Spanish reading comprehension and oral language did not predict their English counterparts. Second, Spanish decoding and oral language showed no significant cross-domain relationships with English reading comprehension. Third, English oral language did not moderate Spanish-to-English relationships, but English oral language was a consistent and significant predictor of English reading comprehension, while Spanish skills did not uniquely predict English reading comprehension beyond English oral language. Findings suggest the importance of L1 word-level skills instruction to support multilingual learners’ English literacy development in early elementary grades.