The Development of Reading Skills in Children With English as a Second Language (original) (raw)

2007, Scientific Studies of Reading

The first study examined the development of reading, spelling and syntactic skills in English speakers (L1) and children with English as a Second language (ESL) from kindergarten to grade 3. This longitudinal study also investigated procedures for identifying reading difficulties in the early grades of elementary school for both English speakers and children with ESL. Reading, spelling, phonological processing, syntax, lexical access and working memory skills were assessed in kindergarten. Additional tasks were incorporated into the battery to assess cognitive and reading processes in grade 3. By the end of grade 3, the L1 and ESL normally achieving readers performed in similar ways on all tasks except on the spelling, arithmetic and syntactic awareness tasks. The ESL normally achieving readers performed better than the L1 on spelling and arithmetic tasks, however the L1 normally achieving readers performed better than the ESL on the syntactic awareness task. Similar cognitive and reading components predicted word reading and reading comprehension in grade 3 for both language groups. The results show that learning English as a second language is not an impediment to successful literacy learning, and may even be an advantage. In the second part of this study we examine whether the first language of children with ESL affected the reading, spelling and syntactic awareness in English. Seven language groups, Chinese, Farsi, Slavic, Japanese, Romance, Tagalog, and native English speakers groups, were compared in a cross sectional study. This study included all the children with ESL in kindergarten and grades 1, 2 and 3. The results demonstrated positive as well as negative effects in spelling and syntactic skills, resulting from the transfer to English Zumbo, for their time and insightful comments. I would especially like to thank my supervisor, Linda Siegel, for giving me the opportunity to work on this incredible project. Her trust and confidence in my abilities and her consistent support of mw along the way have made a tremendous positive impact in my life. Linda, you gave me more than I will ever be able to give you back. Thank you so much. Special thank to my dear friends, Nonie Lesaux and Rufina Pearson, who helped and supported me throughout this study. Special thanks to my Family. My ema, Irit Sakal, with her intuition guided me to do my undergratuate in the special education field. To my aba, Soly Sakal, that always encouraged me to learn more and pursue my education. To my brother Ido, who always makes me smile. And my savta. You all inspired me to do this doctoral study. To my parents-in-law, Silva and Maksho Lipka, my sister-in-law Nira and my brother-in-law Yaron, I could not have wished for a better extended family. Whenever I needed you were always there for me to help and support. To my best friend and my husband Yariv, your love, endless patience and suppot made it possible for me to survive this doctoral adventure. You always gave me the best advice that anyone can ask and were there for me. I love you. To my daughter shani, the light of my life. You came to this world in the middle of my doctoral journey and with your amazing personality, your kindness and happiness provided me with the necessarry balance in my life. To all of you, each and every one of you has an important part in my life and in this thesis. 1 Introduction "At first, the people of the whole world had only one language and used the same words" (Genesis, 11:1). "When I was in China, my mother told me that Canada was so faraway it would take us more than 14 hours to get there. Now I am living in Canada, but sometimes I still feel that Canada is so far from me. Language is my major problem. Although I am able to deal with the assignments and the tests, I feel that I simply can't communicate with other students. Actually, I should say that I am really nervous about misunderstanding others so that I become more and more reticent. .... Anyway, I don't regret coming to Canada. I should not always think about the negative side. Actually, I have learned much during the eight months. For instance, I feel that my English is much better than those days when I was first here..." Xuan Cen China (Porter, 1991, p. 22). "The most difficult problem to overcome is language. Although in Hong Kong some subjects are taken in English, sometimes when teachers explain to the class they use Cantonese instead of English. Here, everything is taught in English, and when the teachers speak fast, I cannot understand. Sometimes a teacher makes jokes and students laugh a lot, but I just sit on my seat like a stone. How embarrassed I am."