Elizabeth D Peña
Biographic Data
| ID | 3843579 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elizabeth D Peña |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elizabeth D |
| FAMILY NAME | Peña |
| SIGNATURE | PENA É D |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Texas at Austin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6119-7658 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Dual language profiles in Spanish–English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder
This study examined the variability of language profiles in Spanish–English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). The data included 529 children between the ages of 5 and 10 years. Eighty-eight of these children were identified as having DLD. A latent profile analysis was conducted based on children’s morphosyntax and semantics performance in Spanish and English. The optimal model identified five different pro…
Changes in the home language environments of US Spanish–English bilinguals between the ages of 4 and 12
This study longitudinally modeled home language exposure patterns of US Spanish–English bilingual children between the ages of 4 and 12. Participants were 280 Spanish–English bilinguals (95% Hispanic, 52% female) who were followed for up to 5 years using a cross-sequential longitudinal design. Multilevel linear regression models were used to estimate language exposure trajectories across four home language sources (adults, peers, electronic media…
That’s hard! Item difficulty and word characteristics for bilinguals with and without developmental language disorder
Research has investigated how lexical-semantic and participant factors impact word learning in young children and adults. However, limited information pertaining to expressive vocabulary development exists for school-aged bilinguals—particularly those with developmental language disorder (DLD). Cross-linguistic differences in the semantic characteristics of words may impact the types of cues available for constructing expressive vocabulary knowle…
A longitudinal investigation of the semantic receptive-expressive gap in Spanish-English bilingual children
Purpose: appears to be a universal feature of early bilingualism, little is known about its development. We sought to determine if the magnitude of the discrepancy between receptive and expressive standard scores changed over time in bilingual children's two languages. Method: In this longitudinal study, standardized receptive and expressive semantics tests of 106 Spanish-English bilingual children with TD were taken at kindergarten and first gra…
Dual-language engagement
Exploring parent, student, and teacher language moves is essential to develop and implement strategies that cultivate Spanish use in support of dual-language engagement. We used Lareau's concerted cultivation framework to explore language use at a K-8 dual-language immersion school. A case-study design integrating content analysis was used to analyze parent, teacher, and student interview and classroom observation data. Concerted cultivation of S…
Sentence repetition with bilinguals with and without DLD
Though previous research has shown that sentence repetition (SR) is an informative tool for identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilinguals, little is understood about the skills that underlie children's performance on the task. With a population of 136 school-age Spanish–English bilinguals, the present study explores the contribution of verbal short-term memory, vocabulary, and language exposure on two SR tasks developed in Engli…
Contribution of Nonverbal Cognitive Skills on Bilingual Children's Grammatical Performance
This study explores the contribution of nonverbal working memory and processing speed on bilingual children's morphosyntactic knowledge, after controlling for language exposure. Participants include 307 Spanish-English bilinguals in Kindergarten, second, and fourth grade (mean age = 7;8, SD = 18 months). Morphosyntactic knowledge in English and Spanish was measured using two separate language tasks: a cloze task and a narrative language task. In …
Effects of divided input on bilingual children with language impairment
Aims and objectives: We compare the performance of 600 bilingual children with and without language impairment relative to their level of current English input and output (EIO). Children were tested in both Spanish and English on measures of morphosyntax and semantics. Our aim was to examine whether children’s language performance was differentially affected by the level of EIO and/or language ability. Methodology: Participants were drawn from th…
Longitudinal Evidence for Simultaneous Bilingual Language Development With Shifting Language Dominance, and How to Explain It
Theories of how language works have shifted from rule-like competence accounts to more skill-like incremental learning accounts. Under these, people acquire language incrementally, through practice, and may even lose it incrementally as they acquire competing mappings. Incremental learning implies that (1) a bilingual's abilities in their languages should depend on how much they practice each (not merely age of acquisition), and (2) using a L2 mo…
Preposition accuracy on a sentence repetition task in school age Spanish–English bilinguals
Preposition knowledge is important for academic success. The goal of this project was to examine how different variables such as English input and output, Spanish preposition score, mother education level, and age of English exposure (AoEE) may have played a role in children's preposition knowledge in English. 148 Spanish–English children between 7;0 and 9;11 produced prepositions in English and Spanish on a sentence repetition task from an exper…
Effects of Age of English Exposure, Current Input/Output, and grade on bilingual language performance
This study evaluates the effects of Age of Exposure to English (AoEE) and Current Input/Output on language performance in a cross-sectional sample of Spanish–English bilingual children. First- ( N = 586) and third-graders ( N = 298) who spanned a wide range of bilingual language experience participated. Parents and teachers provided information about English and Spanish language use. Short tests of semantic and morphosyntactic development in Span…
Bilingual children’s use of lexical strategies under narrative monologue and dialogue conditions
Purpose: This study examined lexical strategies produced by Spanish-English bilingual kindergartners across two different narrative elicitation tasks. Method: Fifty participants (M = 67.24 months) produced narratives in English under monologue and dialogue conditions. Participants were placed in high and low language performance groups determined by results from a bilingual language screener. Per parent report, children were matched by age, curre…
The relation between language experience and receptive-expressive semantic gaps in bilingual children
The purpose of the current study was to explore the influence of language experience on the presence of the receptive-expressive gap. Each of 778 Spanish-English bilingual children screened pre-kindergarten in Utah and Texas were assigned to one of five language experience groups, ranging from functionally monolingual to balanced bilingual. Children's scores from the language screener semantics subtest administered in both Spanish and English wer…
The measure matters
The purpose of this study was to determine if different language measures resulted in the same classifications of language dominance and proficiency for a group of bilingual pre-kindergarteners and kindergarteners. Data were analyzed for 1029 Spanish–English bilingual pre-kindergarteners who spanned the full range of bilingual language proficiency. Parent questionnaires were used to quantify age of first exposure and current language use. Scores …
Parent and teacher rating of bilingual language proficiency and language development concerns
Educators of young children, including speech-language pathologists, are often uncertain as how to effectively work with children from diverse backgrounds because they do not know enough about cultural and linguistic diversity and its impact on language development. The current study helps to address this gap by examining the validity of parent and teacher report in determining language proficiency and language ability in prekindergarten and kind…
What you hear and what you say
PURPOSE: This study assesses the factors that contribute to Spanish and English language development in bilingual children. METHOD: 757 Hispanic Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten age children completed screening tests of semantic and morphosyntactic development in Spanish and English. Parents provided information about their occupation and education as well as their children's English and Spanish exposure. Data were analyzed using zero-inflated r…
Assessment of Bilingual Children for Identification of Language Impairment
Children from bilingual backgrounds are sometimes overidentified with language impairment (LI) because educators do not have appropriate developmental expectations. At other times bilingual children are underidentified because educators wait to identify difficulties while children learn the second language. In this review we discuss data on language acquisition from several sources including cross-linguistic studies of typical first language acqu…
Lost in Translation
In cross-cultural child development research there is often a need to translate instruments and instructions to languages other than English. Typically, the translation process focuses on ensuring linguistic equivalence. However, establishment of linguistic equivalence through translation techniques is often not sufficient to guard against validity threats. In addition to linguistic equivalence, functional equivalence, cultural equivalence, and m…
Longitudinal Evidence for Simultaneous Bilingual Language Development With Shifting Language Dominance, and How to Explain It
Theories of how language works have shifted from rule-like competence accounts to more skill-like incremental learning accounts. Under these, people acquire language incrementally, through practice, and may even lose it incrementally as they acquire competing mappings. Incremental learning implies that (1) a bilingual's abilities in their languages should depend on how much they practice each (not merely age of acquisition), and (2) using a L2 mo…
Contribution of Nonverbal Cognitive Skills on Bilingual Children's Grammatical Performance
This study explores the contribution of nonverbal working memory and processing speed on bilingual children's morphosyntactic knowledge, after controlling for language exposure. Participants include 307 Spanish-English bilinguals in Kindergarten, second, and fourth grade (mean age = 7;8, SD = 18 months). Morphosyntactic knowledge in English and Spanish was measured using two separate language tasks: a cloze task and a narrative language task. In …
Lost in Translation
In cross-cultural child development research there is often a need to translate instruments and instructions to languages other than English. Typically, the translation process focuses on ensuring linguistic equivalence. However, establishment of linguistic equivalence through translation techniques is often not sufficient to guard against validity threats. In addition to linguistic equivalence, functional equivalence, cultural equivalence, and m…
Assessment of Bilingual Children for Identification of Language Impairment
Children from bilingual backgrounds are sometimes overidentified with language impairment (LI) because educators do not have appropriate developmental expectations. At other times bilingual children are underidentified because educators wait to identify difficulties while children learn the second language. In this review we discuss data on language acquisition from several sources including cross-linguistic studies of typical first language acqu…
What you hear and what you say
PURPOSE: This study assesses the factors that contribute to Spanish and English language development in bilingual children. METHOD: 757 Hispanic Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten age children completed screening tests of semantic and morphosyntactic development in Spanish and English. Parents provided information about their occupation and education as well as their children's English and Spanish exposure. Data were analyzed using zero-inflated r…
Parent and teacher rating of bilingual language proficiency and language development concerns
Educators of young children, including speech-language pathologists, are often uncertain as how to effectively work with children from diverse backgrounds because they do not know enough about cultural and linguistic diversity and its impact on language development. The current study helps to address this gap by examining the validity of parent and teacher report in determining language proficiency and language ability in prekindergarten and kind…
The measure matters
The purpose of this study was to determine if different language measures resulted in the same classifications of language dominance and proficiency for a group of bilingual pre-kindergarteners and kindergarteners. Data were analyzed for 1029 Spanish–English bilingual pre-kindergarteners who spanned the full range of bilingual language proficiency. Parent questionnaires were used to quantify age of first exposure and current language use. Scores …
Bilingual children’s use of lexical strategies under narrative monologue and dialogue conditions
Purpose: This study examined lexical strategies produced by Spanish-English bilingual kindergartners across two different narrative elicitation tasks. Method: Fifty participants (M = 67.24 months) produced narratives in English under monologue and dialogue conditions. Participants were placed in high and low language performance groups determined by results from a bilingual language screener. Per parent report, children were matched by age, curre…
The relation between language experience and receptive-expressive semantic gaps in bilingual children
The purpose of the current study was to explore the influence of language experience on the presence of the receptive-expressive gap. Each of 778 Spanish-English bilingual children screened pre-kindergarten in Utah and Texas were assigned to one of five language experience groups, ranging from functionally monolingual to balanced bilingual. Children's scores from the language screener semantics subtest administered in both Spanish and English wer…
Effects of Age of English Exposure, Current Input/Output, and grade on bilingual language performance
This study evaluates the effects of Age of Exposure to English (AoEE) and Current Input/Output on language performance in a cross-sectional sample of Spanish–English bilingual children. First- ( N = 586) and third-graders ( N = 298) who spanned a wide range of bilingual language experience participated. Parents and teachers provided information about English and Spanish language use. Short tests of semantic and morphosyntactic development in Span…
Preposition accuracy on a sentence repetition task in school age Spanish–English bilinguals
Preposition knowledge is important for academic success. The goal of this project was to examine how different variables such as English input and output, Spanish preposition score, mother education level, and age of English exposure (AoEE) may have played a role in children's preposition knowledge in English. 148 Spanish–English children between 7;0 and 9;11 produced prepositions in English and Spanish on a sentence repetition task from an exper…
Effects of divided input on bilingual children with language impairment
Aims and objectives: We compare the performance of 600 bilingual children with and without language impairment relative to their level of current English input and output (EIO). Children were tested in both Spanish and English on measures of morphosyntax and semantics. Our aim was to examine whether children’s language performance was differentially affected by the level of EIO and/or language ability. Methodology: Participants were drawn from th…
Longitudinal Evidence for Simultaneous Bilingual Language Development With Shifting Language Dominance, and How to Explain It
Theories of how language works have shifted from rule-like competence accounts to more skill-like incremental learning accounts. Under these, people acquire language incrementally, through practice, and may even lose it incrementally as they acquire competing mappings. Incremental learning implies that (1) a bilingual's abilities in their languages should depend on how much they practice each (not merely age of acquisition), and (2) using a L2 mo…
Sentence repetition with bilinguals with and without DLD
Though previous research has shown that sentence repetition (SR) is an informative tool for identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilinguals, little is understood about the skills that underlie children's performance on the task. With a population of 136 school-age Spanish–English bilinguals, the present study explores the contribution of verbal short-term memory, vocabulary, and language exposure on two SR tasks developed in Engli…
Contribution of Nonverbal Cognitive Skills on Bilingual Children's Grammatical Performance
This study explores the contribution of nonverbal working memory and processing speed on bilingual children's morphosyntactic knowledge, after controlling for language exposure. Participants include 307 Spanish-English bilinguals in Kindergarten, second, and fourth grade (mean age = 7;8, SD = 18 months). Morphosyntactic knowledge in English and Spanish was measured using two separate language tasks: a cloze task and a narrative language task. In …
That’s hard! Item difficulty and word characteristics for bilinguals with and without developmental language disorder
Research has investigated how lexical-semantic and participant factors impact word learning in young children and adults. However, limited information pertaining to expressive vocabulary development exists for school-aged bilinguals—particularly those with developmental language disorder (DLD). Cross-linguistic differences in the semantic characteristics of words may impact the types of cues available for constructing expressive vocabulary knowle…
A longitudinal investigation of the semantic receptive-expressive gap in Spanish-English bilingual children
Purpose: appears to be a universal feature of early bilingualism, little is known about its development. We sought to determine if the magnitude of the discrepancy between receptive and expressive standard scores changed over time in bilingual children's two languages. Method: In this longitudinal study, standardized receptive and expressive semantics tests of 106 Spanish-English bilingual children with TD were taken at kindergarten and first gra…
Dual-language engagement
Exploring parent, student, and teacher language moves is essential to develop and implement strategies that cultivate Spanish use in support of dual-language engagement. We used Lareau's concerted cultivation framework to explore language use at a K-8 dual-language immersion school. A case-study design integrating content analysis was used to analyze parent, teacher, and student interview and classroom observation data. Concerted cultivation of S…
Changes in the home language environments of US Spanish–English bilinguals between the ages of 4 and 12
This study longitudinally modeled home language exposure patterns of US Spanish–English bilingual children between the ages of 4 and 12. Participants were 280 Spanish–English bilinguals (95% Hispanic, 52% female) who were followed for up to 5 years using a cross-sequential longitudinal design. Multilevel linear regression models were used to estimate language exposure trajectories across four home language sources (adults, peers, electronic media…
Dual language profiles in Spanish–English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder
This study examined the variability of language profiles in Spanish–English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). The data included 529 children between the ages of 5 and 10 years. Eighty-eight of these children were identified as having DLD. A latent profile analysis was conducted based on children’s morphosyntax and semantics performance in Spanish and English. The optimal model identified five different pro…
Linguistics (17 works) · Psychology (17 works) · Language Development and Disorders (15 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (14 works) · Developmental psychology (10 works) · Neuroscience of multilingualism (10 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (8 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Mathematics education (6 works) · Vocabulary (5 works)