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Moving Towards Biliteracy: Varying Paths Of Bilingual Writers In Two-Way Immersion Programs, Elizabeth Howard, Sabina Neugebauer

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

This study investigates the English and Spanish lower-order writing development of 185 bilingual students in two-way immersion (TWI) programs and explores the extent to which home language exposure may explain different writing trajectories in each language. Students were administered English and Spanish basic writing skills assessments once per year over four years, from second through fifth grade. Multi-level modeling revealed that students demonstrated significant growth in lower-order writing ability in both languages, but the rates of acceleration slowed over time. Moreover, increased use of a given language at home was significantly associated with higher writing ability in that language in …