Exploring Spanish Language Development through Syntax in Bilingual Children

The purpose of this study was to describe the Spanish syntactic development of Heritage Speakers (HS) at 1st and 6th grade, with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Mean length of utterance in words (MLU-w), subordination index (SI), and grammaticality were measured to determine the language growth trajectories of the children. Previously collected audios of narrative re-tells were used for this analysis. These language samples were transcribed and coded using SALT conventions. Two-way mixed methods ANOVA was conducted to compare the effect of ability group (between-subjects) and grade (within-subjects) on each of the measures. Results revealed that there were differences between ability group and grade. Between groups, children with typical development (TD) performed higher than their peers with DLD. On a group scale, the children with TD improved in the measures of MLU-w and SI from the 1st grade to the 6th grade, while measures like grammaticality showed no significant improvement. On an individual scale, all growth types were observed: improvement, stagnation, and loss. Further research on bilingual adolescent language could reveal the significance of SI in assessing their language as well as develop norms for the language development of older HSs.