title: The effects of measures of language experience and language ability on segmental accuracy in bilingual children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study investigated the effects of selected measures of language experience (parent-reported estimates of frequency of output and language use) and language ability (parent-reported language proficiency and mean length of utterance in words) on the segmental accuracy of Spanish- and English-speaking bilingual children.
  
  
  METHODS
  The phonological skills of 50 typically developing bilingual Spanish-English children (mean age = 5;9 [years;months]) were examined. Independent variables included parent estimates of language use, language proficiency, and frequency of language output (5 groups), as well as a direct language measure (mean length of utterance in words) to predict the dependent segmental accuracy measures (percentage of consonants and vowels correct).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Frequency of language output did not have an effect on any of the English or Spanish segmental accuracy measures. However, parent-reported language use and language proficiency as well as the direct measure of language ability (mean length of utterance in words) had various effects on segmental accuracy. Those effects differed, however, in language-specific patterns.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parental estimates of language use and language proficiency are useful for predicting the phonological skills of bilingual Spanish- and English-speaking children, and augmenting them with a direct measure of language ability as a predictor of segmental accuracy is desirable.
authors.affiliation: Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA. briang@temple.edu
authors.forename: Brian A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: Ferenc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bunta
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lange
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Burrows
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D001076:Aptitude; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology; D007807:Language Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D010700:Phonetics; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014705:Verbal Behavior