Word Reading Development in Heritage Bilinguals: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective

Learning to read in heritage bilinguals is shaped by their unique bilingual experiences in the two languages. This dissertation asked, how do the variations in heritage bilinguals’ cross-linguistic language experiences influence their literacy development? Through two related studies, I explored the longitudinal relationships between bilinguals’ language skills and the neural organizations that underpin the development of phonological and morphological processing in bilingual children. In Study 1, I used longitudinal language and literacy assessment data on Spanish-English, Chinese-English bilinguals, and English monolinguals’ respective languages (N = 181, ages 5-11). The findings revealed that heritage language experience had a significant and enduring cross-linguistic effect on bilinguals’ formal schooling language (English). In Study 2, I used functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging data on Chinese-English bilinguals and English monolinguals (N = 119; ages 5-11). The finding revealed cross-linguistic and bilingual effects in the neural organization. Cross-linguistically, the task that best characterizes literacy success of the given orthography (phonology in English and morphology in Chinese) showed greater automaticity for the given language. The bilingual effect is reflected in less activation during a more language-universal task (phonology) and more activation in language-specific task (morphology) in bilinguals than monolinguals. Taken together, these dissertation findings provide nuanced insight into core mechanisms and neural plasticity that underlie heritage bilinguals’ literacy development.PHDEducation & PsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/178115/1/kehui_1.pd