Comparing apples to manzanas and oranges to naranjas: A new measure of English-Spanish vocabulary for dual language learners

Catherine S Tamis-LeMonda; George Kachergis; Lillian R Masek; Sandy L Gonzalez; Kasey C Soska; Orit Herzberg; Melody Xu; Karen E Adolph; Rick O Gilmore; Marc H Bornstein; Marianella Casasola; Caitlin M Fausey; Michael C Frank; Susan Goldin-Meadow; Julie Gros-Louis; Kathy Hirsh-Pasek; Jana Iverson; Casey Lew-Williams; Brian MacWhinney; Virginia A Marchman; Letitia Naigles; Laura Namy; Lynn K Perry; Meredith Rowe; Adam Sheya; Melanie Soderstrom; Lulu Song; Eric Walle; Anne S Warlaumont; Hanako Yoshida; Chen Yu; Dan Yurovsky

doi:10.1111/infa.12571

Comparing apples to manzanas and oranges to naranjas: A new measure of English-Spanish vocabulary for dual language learners

Infancy. 2024 May-Jun;29(3):302-326. doi: 10.1111/infa.12571. Epub 2024 Jan 13.

Authors

Catherine S Tamis-LeMonda¹, George Kachergis², Lillian R Masek¹, Sandy L Gonzalez¹, Kasey C Soska¹, Orit Herzberg¹, Melody Xu¹, Karen E Adolph¹, Rick O Gilmore³, Marc H Bornstein^{4

5

6}, Marianella Casasola⁷, Caitlin M Fausey⁸, Michael C Frank², Susan Goldin-Meadow⁹, Julie Gros-Louis¹⁰, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek¹¹, Jana Iverson¹², Casey Lew-Williams¹³, Brian MacWhinney¹⁴, Virginia A Marchman², Letitia Naigles¹⁵, Laura Namy¹⁶, Lynn K Perry¹⁷, Meredith Rowe¹⁸, Adam Sheya¹⁵, Melanie Soderstrom¹⁹, Lulu Song²⁰, Eric Walle²¹, Anne S Warlaumont²², Hanako Yoshida²³, Chen Yu²⁴, Dan Yurovsky¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ New York University, New York, New York, USA.
² Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
³ The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁴ Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
⁵ Institute for Fiscal Studies, London, UK.
⁶ UNICEF, New York, New York, USA.
⁷ Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
⁸ University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA.
⁹ University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
¹⁰ University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.
¹¹ Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
¹² Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
¹³ Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
¹⁴ Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
¹⁵ University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.
¹⁶ Institute for Education Sciences, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
¹⁷ University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA.
¹⁸ Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
¹⁹ University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
²⁰ Brooklyn College, CUNY, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
²¹ University of California Merced, Merced, California, USA.
²² University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
²³ University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
²⁴ University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.

PMID: 38217508
PMCID: PMC11019594 (available on 2025-05-01)
DOI: 10.1111/infa.12571

Abstract

The valid assessment of vocabulary development in dual-language-learning infants is critical to developmental science. We developed the Dual Language Learners English-Spanish (DLL-ES) Inventories to measure vocabularies of U.S. English-Spanish DLLs. The inventories provide translation equivalents for all Spanish and English items on Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) short forms; extended inventories based on CDI long forms; and Spanish language-variety options. Item-Response Theory analyses applied to Wordbank and Web-CDI data (n = 2603, 12-18 months; n = 6722, 16-36 months; half female; 1% Asian, 3% Black, 2% Hispanic, 30% White, 64% unknown) showed near-perfect associations between DLL-ES and CDI long-form scores. Interviews with 10 Hispanic mothers of 18- to 24-month-olds (2 White, 1 Black, 7 multi-racial; 6 female) provide a proof of concept for the value of the DLL-ES for assessing the vocabularies of DLLs.

MeSH terms

Child
Child Language
Citrus sinensis*
Female
Humans
Infant
Language
Language Tests
Malus*
Multilingualism*
Vocabulary

Abstract

MeSH terms

Grants and funding