Research indicates that there are numerous factors related to dual language proficiency. Furthermore, research suggests that the language skills of bilingual children are very heterogeneous. In this study, we will focus on four outcomes for those receiving dual language input. Those four patterns of outcome are as follows: bilingual children can have high levels of skills in English and Spanish, high skills in English and low skills in the Spanish or vice versa, or low levels of skills in English and Spanish. The present study focused on the prevalence of these four patterns and their concurrent correlates amongst 30 month old (N = 87, 48 females) and 48 month old (N = 74, 40 females) simultaneous English-Spanish bilinguals with special emphasis on the distinguishing factors for those with high dual language skills. Overall, for those with high dual scores, the findings reveal that gender, birth-order, and maternal level of education are predictive of high dual language scores so that members of this group are largely first-born females of mothers with an average 15.8 years of education. English dominant scores were predicted by percent English input in the home and birth-order so that children in this group were mostly later-born children with 65% English input in the home. Spanish dominant scores were predicted by percent English input in the home and Spanish bookreading behaviors as children in this group received 23% of their in-home input in English and were read to for more than one hour per week in Spanish. Low dual scores were marginally predicted by gender and Spanish book-reading behaviors, children in this group were mostly male and received less than an in hour of Spanish reading per week. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Code-switching is a common feature of bilingual language use and has multiple factors that influence the frequency and type of code-switching. 56 Spanish-English bilingual children recorded sessions of Spanish-designated and English-designated interactions with a caregiver at 2.5 and 3.5 years. These sessions were transcribed and coded for all code-switched utterances. At both ages, we found: (1) Children switched to English more frequently than they switched to Spanish. (2) Their degree of English dominance was a positive predictor of their frequency of switching to English, but a negative predictor of their frequency of switching to Spanish. Between 2.5 and 3.5 years, children became more English dominant, and their rate of switching to English increased while their rate of switching to Spanish decreased. The present findings suggest that the strongest influence on bilingual children’s code-switching is their relative proficiency in their two languages and as that proficiency changes, their code-switching changes. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection