Verbal Ability and School Achievement of Bilingual and Monolingual Children of Different Ages1

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Abstract
This study investigated differences in verbal ability and school achievement of bilingual and monolingual children in grades 3,4, and 5. American children attending a Department of Defense school at Camp Zama, Japan, were classified as bilingual or monolingual based on information provided by parents. Children were also classified as being of high, middle, or low nonverbal ability in terms of the Nonverbal score of the Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Tests. Dependent variables were the Lorge-Thorndike Verbal Score and the 15 scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. At grade 3, bilingual and monolingual children performed similarly. By grade 4, monolingual children performed noticeably better than bilingual children on verbal or language type tests, and in grade 5 the differences were even more substantial. On relatively nonverbal tests, bilingual and monolingual children continued to perform similarly.