Early literacy and comprehension skills in children learning English as an additional language and monolingual children with language weaknesses (original) (raw)
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Journal of Research in Reading, 2020
Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) are a growing population of learners in English primary schools. These children begin school with differing levels of English language proficiency and tend to underperform in relation to their non-EAL peers on measures of English oral language and reading. However, little work has examined the developmental trajectories of these skills in EAL learners in England. EAL learners and 33 non-EAL peers in Year 4 (age 8-9 years) were assessed at three time points over 18 months on measures of oral language (vocabulary, grammar and listening comprehension), phonological processing (spoonerisms and rapid automatised naming) and reading skills (single-word decoding and passage reading). At t1, EAL learners scored significantly lower than non-EAL peers in receptive and expressive vocabulary (breadth but not depth), spoonerisms and passage reading accuracy. Contrary to previous research, no significant group differences were found in listening or reading comprehension skills. With the exception of passage reading accuracy, there was no evidence for convergence or divergence between the groups in rate of progress over time. After three years of English-medium classroom instruction, EAL learners continue to underperform relative to their non-EAL peers in breadth of English vocabulary knowledge. This discrepancy in vocabulary knowledge does not appear to narrow as a result of regular classroom instruction in the run up to the final stages of primary school, pinpointing vocabulary as a key target for intervention.
The development of reading comprehension skills in children learning English as a second language
Reading and Writing, 2011
Reading comprehension is a multi-dimensional process that includes the reader, the text, and factors associated with the activity of reading. Most research and theories of comprehension are based primarily on research conducted with monolingual English speakers (L1). The present study was designed to investigate the cognitive and linguistic factors that have an influence on reading comprehension in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) speakers. The cognitive aspects of reading comprehension among L1 speakers and ESL speakers in the seventh grade were investigated. The performance of both groups was compared and the role of some relevant processes, including word reading, word reading fluency, phonological awareness, working memory, and morphological and syntactic awareness were assessed. Within this sample, three groups were examined: (1) children with poor comprehension (PC) in the absence of word reading difficulties (2) children with poor word reading and poor comprehension (poor readers, PR) (3) and children with both good word reading and comprehension abilities (good comprehenders, GC). The results demonstrated that a variety of cognitive processes, such as working memory and phonological, syntactic, and morphological awareness are important for reading comprehension and compromised in poor comprehenders. The GC group performed better than the PC group on all of the cognitive measures, indicating that comprehension depends on a variety of phonological, memory and linguistic processes and that adequate word recognition skill are important for reading comprehension. The prevalence of the ESL and L1 students was similar across the three reading groups. The ESL and L1 students demonstrated similar performance, indicating that the skills underlying reading comprehension are similar in the ESL
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2010
Background: Poor comprehenders have difficulty comprehending connected text, despite having ageappropriate levels of reading accuracy and fluency. We used a longitudinal design to examine earlier reading and language skills in children identified as poor comprehenders in mid-childhood. Method: Two hundred and forty-two children began the study at age 5. Further assessments of language and reading skill were made at 5.5, 6, 7 and 8 years. At age 8, fifteen children met criteria for being a poor comprehender and were compared to 15 control children both concurrently and prospectively. Results: Poor comprehenders showed normal reading accuracy and fluency at all ages. Reading comprehension was poor at each time point and, notably, showed minimal increases in raw score between 6 and 8 years. Phonological skills were generally normal throughout, but mild impairments in expressive and receptive language, listening comprehension and grammatical understanding were seen at all ages. Conclusions: Children identified as poor comprehenders at 8 years showed the same reading profile throughout earlier development. Their difficulties with the non-phonological aspects of oral language were present at school entry and persisted through childhood, showing that the oral language weaknesses seen in poor comprehenders in mid-childhood are not a simple consequence of their reading comprehension impairment.
Languages
The current study aimed at investigating the performance of bilingual children with English as an additional language (EAL) on language and literacy measures compared to monolinguals across the first four years of primary school in the U.K. Moreover, it addressed whether bilinguals and monolinguals’ performance on reading comprehension was consistent with the Simple View of Reading. An additional area of interest was to examine the extent to which use of and exposure to both heritage and majority language affected the development of the children’s reading comprehension in both of their spoken languages. A total of forty bilingual and forty monolingual children were assessed in oral language skills and decoding in Year 1 and Year 3 in primary school. After one school year, they were assessed in oral language skills, decoding, and reading comprehension in Year 2 and Year 4. The results showed that the bilinguals performed better than the monolinguals in decoding in all years, suggesti...
Reading and Writing, 2012
The validity of two measures of English reading comprehension was examined across three different groups of English language learners (ELLs; 64 Portuguese, 66 Spanish and 65 Cantonese). All three groups were achieving within the average range in second grade. An exploratory principal components analysis of reading skills was carried out to determine which skills were related to two commonly used tests of reading comprehension, the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery's test of Passage Comprehension (WLPB-PC; Woodcock, 1991) and the Gray Oral Reading Test-4 (GORT-4; Wiederholt & Bryant, 2001). The factor solutions were different for the three language groups but showed many similarities in that the GORT-4 and WLPB-R tests of reading comprehension fell on the same factor within each group. Hierarchical regression analyses examining relationships among vocabulary, decoding and reading comprehension showed that language group membership did not significantly predict performance on either measure of reading comprehension. Differences that arose are likely due to issues with task validity and not ELL status. Limitations and future research are discussed.
The developmental progression of comprehension-related skills in children learning EAL
Many children who speak English as an additional language (EAL) underachieve in areas of English literacy, especially in the primary years. These difficulties are often attributed to low levels of English language fluency as they enter the education system. In an effort to provide a greater understanding of this underachievement, the cognitive-linguistic factors underlying literacy development in monolingual children and children learning EAL were examined in a three-year longitudinal project. The project, conducted in schools in the north of England, followed the developmental progression of forty-three children learning EAL and forty-three monolingual children from school years Two to Four. Children were assessed on measures of reading accuracy, reading and listening comprehension, receptive and expressive vocabulary, and reception of grammar. Analysis revealed similarities between the two groups of children on reading accuracy, but children learning EAL had lower levels of vocabulary and comprehension at each point in time. Data are discussed in terms of the development of underlying language skills and the impact of these skills on both reading and listening comprehension. The implications of the findings for classroom practice are considered.
2018
Children learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) are a growing but understudied population of learners in English primary schools. As EAL learners vary in their amount of exposure to English, they often begin formal education with relatively lower levels of English language proficiency than their monolingual peers. Little is known about the English language and literacy developmental trajectories of EAL learners in England, and particularly, the extent to which the two groups of learners converge or diverge over time. Additionally, no studies to date have assessed the efficacy of explicit, targeted vocabulary instruction in this group of learners in the run up to the end of primary school. The present study comprised a longitudinal cohort study of 48 EAL learners and 33 monolingual peers who were assessed at three time points between Year 4 (age 8-9) and Year 5 (age 9-10) on a battery of English language and literacy measures. All EAL learners had received English-medium ed...
Reading and Writing, 2012
We examined theoretical issues concerning the development of reading fluency and language proficiency in 390 English Language Learners (ELLs,) and 149 monolingual, English-as-a-first language (EL1) students. The extent to which performance on these constructs in Grade 5 (i.e., concurrent predictors) contributes to reading comprehension in the presence of Grade 2 autoregressors was also addressed. Students were assessed on cognitive, language, word reading, and reading fluency skills in Grades 2 and 5. In Grade 2, regardless of language group, word and text reading fluency formed a single factor, but by Grade 5 word and text reading fluency formed two distinct factors, the latter being more aligned with language comprehension. In both groups a substantial proportion of the variance in Grade 5 reading comprehension was accounted for uniquely by Grade 2 phonological awareness and vocabulary. Grade 5 text reading fluency contributed uniquely in the presence of the autoregressors. By Grade 5 syntactic skills and listening comprehension emerged as additional language proficiency components predicting reading comprehension in ELL but not in EL1. Results suggest that predictors of reading comprehension are similar but not identical in ELL and EL1. The findings point to a more nuanced and dynamic framework for understanding the building blocks that contribute to reading comprehension in ELLs and EL1s in
The Development of Reading Skills in Children With English as a Second Language
Scientific Studies of Reading, 2007
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."