Spanish language proficiency in retelling and story comprehension in native Spanish-speaking children from South America and Spanish heritage language Australian children

Abstract

In English-speaking societies, heritage language (HL) development is crucial for bilingual children's linguistic, cognitive, and identity growth. However, HL speakers often receive limited exposure to their HL compared to monolingual peers, which may impact their oral discourse skills. While research has traditionally focused on bilingual children's English development, less is known about their proficiency in HL discourse skills. This study examined story retelling and comprehension skills in HL Spanish English bilingual children and Spanish monolingual children. We hypothesised that monolingual children would have better proficiency in both competencies. The participants of this study were two groups of children: monolingual Spanish speakers from South America (n= 21) and bilingual Spanish-English speakers from Australia (n= 23). Story retelling and comprehension were assessed with tasks consisting of 8 testing trials each, after children were exposed to an audiovisual story book (eBook). Results showed that monolingual children significantly outperformed bilinguals in the retelling task. Additionally, although the monolinguals obtained slightly higher comprehension scores than the bilinguals, the difference was statistically nonsignificant. The results of this study have direct implications for education, as they reveal bilingual children understand to the same extend as monolinguals but just need more practice and opportunities for using the HL. This information can be used to develop educational programs that support HL in schools and within families.

Date of Thesis submission	2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Paola Escudero (Supervisor) & Gloria Pino Escobar (Supervisor)