University Language Academy
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• About / Research
• Vocabulary
• Pronunciation
• Grammar
• Teacher Input & Tasks
• Language Awareness

Vocabulary

At the University Language Academy, we measure how English and Spanish vocabularies develop over time.

All children are administered two standardized tests of receptive vocabulary in English (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test or PPVT) and in Spanish (Test de Vocabulario en Imágenes Paebody or TVIP) at the beginning of the academic year and towards the end of the academic year. The PPVT correlates with indicators of verbal intelligence and academic aptitude across childhood. It is also used to identify possible language disorders.

Many of the children are performing above age level in English; and even for Spanish, some of our children are already performing above age-level. Our PPVT and TVIP results indicate that learning Spanish as a second language (L2) helps our students grow their first language (L1) vocabulary. After a year of exposure to Spanish, our students significantly increase their knowledge of English words due to the many cognates (words that have a common etymological origin) that exist between these two languages.