The shared conceptual system and language processing in bilingual children: Findings from literacy assessment in Spanish and Nahuatl

Findings are reported From a series of literacy assessments in which four c lasses of bilingual 3rd and 5tll grade students from an indigenous communit y in Central Mexico participated. Subjects who completed the battery of tes ts of reading and writing in Spanish and Nahuatl range from balanced biling uals to Spanish-dominant speakers with at least receptive language proficie ncy in Nahuatl, the principal indigenous language of the region (Tlaxcala a nd Puebla states). Typically, in bilingual schools in Mexico, instruction i s predominantly or exclusively in Spanish. In the case of the present study , virtually all literacy teaching is carried out in Spanish, thus presentin g investigators with the unique opportunity to examine the application of l iteracy skills learned through one language to literacy tasks in another la nguage that children understand, but in which they have not had the opportu nity to practice reading and writing. Findings offer a different vantage po int from which to conceptualize the models of linguistic interdependence, c ommon underlying proficiency, and transfer, developed and elaborated upon b y researchers in the field of bilingual education. In the study of bilingua lism and secund language learning it is necessary to specify more precisely which aspects of language competence and language use are interdependent a nd which aspects are separate; what precisely does interdependence refer to l What are the conditions under which knowledge and skills stored in a comm on underlying proficiency can be accessed, in particular under special circ umstances of language contact (for example, those that involve indigenous l anguages)? And is transfer a useful concept for describing the various aspe cts of bilingual proficiency?.