Unpacking Language-Related Sources of Variability in Bilingual Students With Poor Reading Comprehension

The purpose of this study was to examine English reading comprehension skills in Spanish-English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). In particular, we examined the contribution of Spanish and English oral language skills and of the language of instruction (i.e., English only or dual language) to English reading comprehension outcomes.

Fifty-nine (26 with DLD) children participated in a battery of standardized testing, including Spanish oral language, English oral language, and English reading comprehension assessments.

On the English reading comprehension assessment, children with typical development outperformed children with DLD. Quantile regressions revealed that oral language skills were significantly correlated with English reading comprehension skills, with the most consistent relationship for English oral language skills and the strongest correlations for children with lower oral language skills, regardless of language (i.e., English and/or Spanish). Differences in English reading comprehension between children in English-only and dual-language classrooms were marginally significant, favoring children in dual-language education.

Reading comprehension is an area of difficulty for bilingual children with DLD. English reading comprehension outcomes in bilingual children are most related to oral language skills in English; however, Spanish oral language explains additional variance in English reading comprehension outcomes. The results suggest that dual-language classrooms may be beneficial for bilingual children with language impairments.