scholarly journals Supporting Reading Comprehension for Students Who Are Learning English and Have Learning Disabilities

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-31
Author(s):  
Kelly J. Williams ◽  
Leticia R. Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Adolescent Students ◽  
Secondary Grades ◽  
Learning English

Many adolescent students who are learning English and are identified with learning disabilities have difficulties with both reading comprehension and English language proficiency. In the secondary grades, these students have fewer opportunities to improve their reading comprehension and to learn from a range of disciplinary texts. To address these challenges, this article provides research-based practices to improve the language and literacy skills of these students through explicit instruction on word reading and academic vocabulary.

scholarly journals The Role of Prekindergarten Spanish in Predicting First-Grade English Word Reading Among Dual-Language Learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 1755-1774
Author(s):  
Language and Reading Research Conso ◽  
Carol Mesa ◽  
Gloria Yeomans-Maldonado
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
First Grade ◽  
English Word ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Language And Literacy

Purpose The purpose of the current study was to examine the role that the 1st language, Spanish, at prekindergarten (pre-K) plays in predicting 2nd language (L2), English, word reading in 1st grade. In addition, it examines the role of conceptual vocabulary in predicting word reading in English. Method As part of a longitudinal study of predictors and models of reading comprehension from pre-K to 3rd grade, 248 children attending preschool programs completed Spanish and English measures in the spring of each academic year. In this article, we report the results of English and Spanish measures of oral language and literacy skills that were administered in pre-K and 4 measures of English word reading that were administered in 1st grade. Results Results from structural equation modeling indicated that Spanish oral language made significant direct and indirect contributions to English oral language and word reading. Further, results supported previous evidence indicating that L2 letter knowledge and L2 oral language proficiency are the strongest predictors of L2 word reading in 1st grade. Discussion Similar to findings with monolingual English-speaking children, results support findings that, in the early stages of reading development, oral language in both 1st language and L2 make a significant and independent contribution to word reading. This study has important implications for the support of oral language skills in Latino preschool children.

scholarly journals Conclusion: Perspectives on Language, Literacy, and Deafness

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 286
Author(s):  
Peter V. Paul ◽  
Faisl Alqraini
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Decoding Skills ◽  
Literacy Learners ◽  
English Literacy

As indicated in this Special Issue, there has been much debate on the development of English language and literacy in d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) students. Questions remain on the nature of the first language and the relation of this language to the development of English literacy. There is also considerable controversy on the role of English phonology. Adding to the complexity is the increase of d/Dhh children for whom English is not the home language and the ongoing challenge of addressing the needs of those with disabilities or additional disabilities. After describing English literacy and the need for documenting desirable research characteristics, the authors of this conclusion article utilize a construct named the Qualitative Similarity Hypothesis (QSH) as the guiding framework for addressing issues such as the role of phonology and the nature of the through-the-air form of the language of print. The QSH asserts that d/Dhh students need to master the same set of fundamentals as typical English literacy learners. These fundamentals include code-related, language-related, and comprehension-related skills. One major assertion is that proficiency in the through-the-air form of English is essential for achieving proficiency in conventional English literacy skills. It is argued that the importance of English language proficiency has been emphasized in literacy models that delineate the strong connections among language, reading, and writing, even for second language learners of English or English learners. Another major assertion is that proficiency in English phonology is necessary (albeit not sufficient) for the development of emerging decoding skills. The use of English phonology facilitates the early and advanced literacy comprehension skills. The article concludes with recommendations for additional research, including the understanding of the visual representation of the structure of English, the development of comprehensive English language assessments, and the exploration of literacy-related skills such as decoding and comprehension. Finally, the validity of the QSH also needs to be further investigated.

scholarly journals Teen Culture, Technology and Literacy Instruction: Urban Adolescent Students’ Perspectives

2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Li ◽  
Catherine Snow ◽  
Claire White
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Adolescent Students ◽  
Use Of Technology

Modern teens have pervasively integrated new technologies into their lives, and technology has become an important component of teen popular culture. Educators have pointed out the promise of exploiting technology to enhance students’ language and literacy skills and general academic success. However, there is no consensus on the effect of technology on teens, and scant literature is available that incorporates the perspective of urban and linguistically diverse students on the feasibility of applying new technologies in teaching and learning literacy in intact classrooms. This paper reports urban adolescents’ perspectives on the use of technology within teen culture, for learning in general and for literacy instruction in particular. Focus group interviews were conducted among linguistically diverse urban students in grades 6, 7 and 8 in a lower income neighborhood in the Northeastern region of the United States. The major findings of the study were that 1) urban teens primarily and almost exclusively used social media and technology devices for peer socializing, 2) they were interested in using technology to improve their literacy skills, but did not appear to voluntarily or independently integrate technology into learning, and 3) 8th graders were considerably more sophisticated in their use of technology and their suggestions for application of technology to literacy learning than 6th and 7th graders. These findings lead to suggestions for developing effective literacy instruction using new technologies.

Increasing Secondary Students’ Comprehension Through Explicit Attention to Narrative Text Structure

2021 ◽  
pp. 004005992110255
Author(s):  
Whitney Sommers Butler ◽  
Casey Hord ◽  
Susan Watts-Taffe
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Text Structure ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Students With Learning Disabilities ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
School Students

In spite of the prevailing assumption that formal reading instruction is no longer needed once adolescents reach high school, students at the secondary level still benefit from explicit reading instruction to continue developing advanced literacy skills enabling them to access complex narrative texts. This article argues for the importance of teachers to scrutinize the texts they plan to teach to determine what instruction and supports are needed to promote reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities. Specifically, this article examines how nonlinear text structures can challenge adolescent reading comprehension and illustrates explicit text structure instruction with three exemplar texts which use unconventional narrative patterns. The article emphasizes the importance of considering the qualitative features of texts to inform instruction to support reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities.

scholarly journals Socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with prevalence of developmental language disorders, but not rate of language or literacy growth in children from 4 to 11 years: evidence from the Surrey Communication and Language in Education Study (SCALES)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtenay Norbury ◽  
Sarah Louise Griffiths ◽  
George Vamvakas ◽  
Gillian Baird ◽  
Tony Charman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Developmental Language Disorders

Objectives. The purpose of this study was to determine the changing prevalence of developmental language disorders at different quintiles of the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI), a measure of neighbourhood deprivation. In addition, this study investigated the long term association of IDACI rank with growth in language and literacy skills for children with and without language disorder over a six year period.Design. Prospective, population-based, longitudinal cohort study.Setting. State-maintained primary schools in Surrey, England.Participants and procedure. Teachers rated the language skills of 7267 children starting a state-maintained school in 2011 (aged 4;9-5;10, 59% of all eligible children). Comprehensive language and literacy assessment was conducted with a monolingual sub-sample in Year 1 (n = 529, age 5-6), Year 3 (n = 499, age 7-8), and Year 6 (n = 384, age 10-11).Analytic methods. Logistic regression determined the association of IDACI scores and teacher-rated language proficiency. Structural Equation Models using auxiliary variables estimated the association of IDACI and prevalence of developmental Language Disorder (LD) in Year 1, and IDACI and language and literacy growth from Years 1 – 6.Results. Predicted probability of language disorder was 2.5 times greater at the 10th centile of IDACI rank (.19 [.11, .27]) versus the 90th centile (.07 [.04, .09]). IDACI rank did not associate with growth in raw scores on measures of vocabulary, grammar, or word reading. Socioeconomic gaps in vocabulary and grammar were ameliorated when language status at school entry was accounted for, but persisted for word reading. Conclusions. The association of neighbourhood disadvantage with language and literacy primarily reflects higher rates of language disorder in areas of socio-economic deprivation. Interventions that alleviate deprivation and enhance the language and literacy experiences of disadvantaged children could reduce socioeconomic attainment gaps. However, the persistence of language disorder suggests on-going support is required to attenuate personal and societal cost.

“Google and me together can read anything.” Online reading strategies to develop hypertext comprehension in ESL readers

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 896-914
Author(s):  
Kshema Jose
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Reading Strategies ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Strategy Training ◽  
Online Reading ◽  
Esl Teachers ◽  
Topic Familiarity ◽  
Online Reading Comprehension ◽  
Online Texts

If we are to build in our students, literacy skills relevant for the 21st century, reading classrooms need to take into account the changing nature of texts that our students are required to read in real-world contexts (Alexander & The Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Laboratory, 2012). This paper exhorts ESL teachers to use online texts or hypertexts, in addition to print textbooks, in the reading classroom. The use of hypertexts can increase the literacy participation of students by making reading authentic, and ensuring literacy skills they acquire more meaningful and productive (Coiro, Killi, & Castek, 2017). In the reading classroom where this research was located, it was observed that readers who scored low on reading comprehension tests based on print texts demonstrated higher levels of comprehension while performing on tests based on hypertexts. The study was conducted to identify the reading strategies used by these readers. It was found that ESL readers were able to overcome deficits in their prior knowledge (topic familiarity) and/or language proficiency by using specific reading and navigating strategies. This paper proposes that strategy training in the use of newer reading and navigating strategies might help develop online reading comprehension expertise and build independent reading habits in ESL readers.

The role of word reading and oral language skills in reading comprehension in Syrian refugee children

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1283-1304
Author(s):  
Redab Al Janaideh ◽  
Alexandra Gottardo ◽  
Sana Tibi ◽  
Johanne Paradis ◽  
Xi Chen
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Refugee Children ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Simple View Of Reading ◽  
Simple View ◽  
Syrian Refugee ◽  
Oral Language Skills

AbstractCanada has resettled more than 57,000 Syrian refugees since 2015 (Government of Canada, 2017). However, little is known about refugee children’s language and literacy development. The present study evaluated Syrian refugee children’s performance on language and literacy measures in English and Arabic, and examined whether the simple view of reading model is applicable in both of their languages. Participants consisted of 115 Syrian refugee children 6–13 years of age. They received a battery of language and literacy measures including word reading, vocabulary, oral narratives, and reading comprehension in both English and Arabic. Compared to the normative samples, refugee children performed poorly on English standardized measures. They also demonstrated difficulties in Arabic, as more than half of the children were not able to read in the language. Despite the relatively low performance, there was evidence to support the simple view of reading model in both languages. In addition, oral language skills played a larger role in English reading comprehension in the older group than the younger group. This age-group comparison was not carried out in Arabic due to reduced sample size. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

The Role of Literary Instruction in the Development of Reading and Writing Skills in Spanish as a Heritage Language during Childhood

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-123
Author(s):  
Alejandro Cuza ◽  
Lauren Miller ◽  
Adrian Pasquarella ◽  
Xi Chen
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Learning Program

The present study examines the role of instruction in the development of reading and writing skills in Spanish as a heritage language during childhood. Sixty-six (n=66) Spanish heritage speakers in K-4th grade participated in an 18-week Spanish intervention. The curriculum included the development of phonological awareness, reading fluency and accuracy as well as vocabulary via cognate instruction. Undergraduate students majoring in Spanish conducted the intervention as part of a service-learning program. Standardized measures given to the students before and after the intervention included phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary knowledge, word reading accuracy, and word reading fluency. The treatment group was compared to a group of twenty-five children (n=25) who did not participate in the program. The two groups were matched by age and non-verbal reasoning. Results from pre and post-tests showed significant gains for the treatment group in vocabulary growth, word reading fluency and word reading accuracy. Phonological awareness developed significantly for both groups, but there was no advantage for the experimental group. Overall, the intervention was effective at promoting both Spanish language and literacy skills (Rhoades, 2009). Contextualized and explicit instruction on word reading and decoding, as well as oral language and vocabulary knowledge in Spanish, helped Spanish heritage learners develop academic language and literacy skills in their first/minority language. Furthermore, the results provide strong evidence supporting the efficacy of a service-learning program aimed at facilitating the development of literacy skills among child heritage language learners.

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