2008 presentation on Giftedness in Hispanic English Language Learner

Esquierdo, Joy J.

Irby, Beverly

Lara-Alecio, Rafael

Texas A&M University

Giftedness in Hispanic English Language 
Learners: Early Stages of Identification
Dr. J. Joy Esquierdo, University of Texas-Pan American 
esquierdo@utpa.edu
Dr. Beverly Irby, Sam Houston State University 
irby@shsu.edu
Dr. Rafael Lara-Alecio, Texas A&M University
a-lara@tamu.edu
Introduction
 No Child Left Behind Standards
 Requires teacher quality
 Monitors academic progress of all students
 Promotes a more inclusive, proactive, and just educational 
system
 Texas Education Agency (TEA) monitoring
 Evaluation of district’s GT programs
 Acceptable, Recognized, and Exemplary
 Demonstration of district effort to identify students of 
diverse populations
Introduction
 Demographic changes in the US
 Hispanics accounted for 40% of the population growth 
between 1990 and 2000 
 28 million US residents, age 5 and older, spoke Spanish at 
home (US Census, 2002)
 Number of identified Hispanic GT students 
stagnated or decreased (Brown, 1997)
Statement of the Problem
 Vague definition of giftedness
 Testing instruments ineffective (Galbraith and 
Delisle, 1996)
 Underrepresentation of ELLs in GT programs 
(Lara-Alecio, Irby, & Walker, 1997)
Significance of the Study
 Reduce the underrepresentation of Hispanic 
GT ELLs
 Address the ambiguity of assessing for GT
 Improve the identification process of Hispanic 
GT ELLs at the kindergarten level
Definitions
 Language proficiency (Canales, 1994)
 English Language Learners (ELLs)
 Limited English Proficient (LEP) (TEC 89.1225)
 Bilingual Education
 TBE
 ESL
 Gifted and Talented (TEC 29.121)
 Hispanic Gifted and Talented (Lara-Alecio & Irby, 
2000)
Instrumentation
 The Hispanic Bilingual Gifted Screening 
Instrument (HBGSI) (Irby & Lara-Alecio, 1996)
 Resulted from two comprehensive studies and 
extensive review of literature
 Grade levels: Kindergarten – 4th grade
 Purpose: Determine if further testing for GT 
service is needed
Instrumentation
 HBGSI
 78-item checklist designed to be completed by a student's 
classroom teacher
 Each item is rated on a five-point Likert scale, with 
5 = "always exhibits behavior/characteristic“
4 = "often exhibits behavior/characteristic" 
3 = "sometimes exhibits behavior/characteristic“
2 = "seldom exhibits behavior/characteristic“
1 = "never exhibits behavior/characteristic". 
Instrumentation
 HBGSI’s 11 Clusters
1. Social and Academic Language:
expressive, elaborate, and fluent verbal behaviors
2. Cultural Sensitivity: 
pride in their language/culture and value oral/written tradition
3. Familial:
“Caretaker” personality
4. Motivation for Learning: 
exhibit a desire for learning, are persistent, and good school 
attendance
5. Collaboration: 
ability to lead and work in groups, has a keen sense of justice
6. Imagery:
exhibit language rich imagery; imaginative in storytelling
Instrumentation
 HBGSI’s 11 Clusters
7. Achievement:
Ability to generalize learning, use store knowledge to solve problems
8. Support:
explored by rating the students’ language development and 
assessment
9. Creative Performance:
Have attributes that deal with creative productivity in the arts 
10.Problem-solving:
Global learners, complete tasks in a patient, non-hurried manner; 
better on spatial fluency tasks
11.Locus of Control:
Keen sense of observation of expectations from society and desire to 
meet those expectations.
Instrumentation
 Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT)
 Ages: 5 – 17 years old
 Previous studies on identifying minority GT
 Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery-Revised 
(WLPB-R) 
 Ages: 2 yrs - adult
 Measures in oral language and reading skills in both 
English and Spanish
 3 subtests: Picture Vocabulary, Listening 
Comprehension, and Verbal Analogy
Research Questions
 Concurrent validity of the HBGSI using the 
NNAT and WLPB-R at kindergarten level
 Correlation between language proficiency in 
English and Spanish as determined by the six 
subtests of the WLPB-R and nonverbal 
intelligence measured by the NNAT 
Methodology
 Setting and Participants
 District A
 Metropolitan area of Houston, Texas
 Over 45% of student population were ELLs
 Three-fourths of student population were low SES
 Recognized District by TEA for past 7  years
 Sample
 778 Kindergarten Hispanic ELLs
 Native Spanish speakers
Results and Discussion
HBGSI Clusters Points
C1: Social & Academic Language 20
C2: Cultural Sensitivity 15
C3: Familial 35
C4: Motivation for Learning 20
C5: Collaboration 70
C6: Imagery 15
C7: Achievement 75
C8: Support 25
C9: Creative Performance 25
C10: Problem Solving 50
C11: Locus of Control 40
Total score 385
n=778 M SD
HBGSI
C1: Social & Academic 
Language
13.18 4.84
C2: Cultural Sensitivity 10.45 4.01
C3: Familial 26.67 6.92
C4: Motivation for Learning 15.35 4.34
C5: Collaboration 44.94 12.79
C6: Imagery 8.50 3.95
C7: Achievement 46.97 16.13
C8: Support 16.98 4.37
C9: Creative Performance 13.30 5.44
C10: Problem Solving 30.51 9.85
C11: Locus of Control 27.99 7.49
Total score 254.70 69.77
NNAT Index 96.97 19.21
Results and Discussion
 Question 1: Concurrent Validity of HBGSI 
 There are statistically significant correlations 
between all 11 clusters and the total score of the 
HBGSI and the NNAT of p < .01. 
 There was a statistically significant correlation 
between the English and Spanish WLPB-R 
subtests and clusters four, six, seven, eight, ten, 
eleven, and the total score of p < .01.
Results and Discussion
n=778
HBGSI Clusters NNAT
C1: Social & Academic Language .206**
C2: Cultural Sensitivity .138**
C3: Familial .226**
C4: Motivation for Learning .289**
C5: Collaboration .235**
C6: Imagery .216**
C7: Achievement .267**
C8: Support .189**
C9: Creative Performance .137**
C10: Problem Solving .226**
C11: Locus of Control .296**
HBGSI Total Score .273**
**p < 0.01 level, two-tailed.
Results and Discussion
n=778 Eng Pic.Voc Eng ListComp Eng
VerAna
Sp
PicVoc
Sp ListComp Sp VerAna
C1: Social & Academic 
Language
-.088* -.059 .034 .450** .404** .347**
C2: Cultural Sensitivity .081* .058 .081* .146** .176** .212**
C3: Familial .226** .213** .167** .062 .088* .203**
C4: Motivation for 
Learning
.171** .208** .197** .148** .197** .269**
C5:
Collaboration
.224** .244** .209** .072* .150** .213**
C6: Imagery .132** .132** .206** .235** .248** .256**
C7: Achievement .222** .224** .211** .154** .194** .251**
C8: Support .097** .094** .106** .143** .146** .190**
C9: Creative Performance .050 .047 .045 .157** .178** .181**
C10: Problem Solving .193** .181** .182** .120** .139** .223**
C11: Locus of Control .225** .218** .231** .153** .192** .258**
HBGSI Total Score .193** .202** .195** .168** .209** .272**
*p < 0.05, two-tailed.
** p < 0.01, two-tailed.
Results and Discussion
 Question 2: Correlation Coefficients 
 There was a statistically significant correlation 
between the NNAT and the WLPB-R subtests at 
p< .01, except for the Spanish Picture Vocabulary 
subtest which was statistically significantly 
correlated at p< .05.
Results and Discussion
n=778 NNAT
Pearson r r2
WLPB-R: English Subtests
Picture Vocabulary
.212** .045
Listening Comprehension .276** .076
Verbal Analogy .238** .057
WLPB-R: Spanish Subtests  
Picture Vocabulary
.070* .005
Listening Comprehension .110** .012
Verbal Analogy .153** .023
*p < 0.05, two-tailed.
**p < 0.01, two-tailed.
Implications for Practice
 Recommendations for school districts
 HBGSI as a GT screening instrument for 
kindergarten Hispanic ELLs
 Combination of nonverbal intelligence and 
language proficiency assessments with the 
HBGSI
 Proactive teacher training on Hispanic GT 
characteristics


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Giftedness in Hispanic English Language Learners: Early Stages of Identification

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Giftedness in Hispanic English Language Learners: Early Stages of Identification

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