The English Phonological Skills of Latino Spanish-English Dual-Language Preschoolers Living in Los Angeles: Implications for Practice

This study examines the English phonological skills of ten Spanish L1/English L2 bilingual preschoolers from Los Angeles, focusing on (1) phonetic inventory complexity, (2) overall consonant accuracy, (3) accuracy of production of early-, middle-, and late-developing sounds, and (d) interaction between phonological systems. The results indicate that English inventories were commensurate to those of same-age monolinguals, yet accuracy levels were lower. Spanish sounds appeared in English inventories, and English-only sounds were produced with lower accuracy than sounds present in both languages. These results validate previous findings and suggest that phonological systems interact in development, bootstrapping some phonological skills while at the same time delaying others. We discuss the implications of our findings for speech pathologists and preschool educators.