"Peer Tutoring and Response Groups" aims to improve the language and achievement of English language learners by pairing or grouping students to work on a task. The students may be grouped by age or ability (English-only, bilingual, or limited English proficient) or the groups may be mixed. Both peer tutoring pairs and peer response…

This study used a copying task to examine spelling acquisition in French and Spanish from a perception and action perspective. Experiment 1 compared French and Spanish-speaking monolingual children's performance. Experiment 2 analysed the behaviour of bilingual children when copying words in French and Spanish. Gaze lift analysis showed that in…

Fifty-four students were tested at specific time intervals over 10 years to determine best native language (NL) predictors of oral and written foreign language (FL) proficiency and FL aptitude. All participants completed two years of Spanish, French, or German. Each was administered measures of NL literacy, oral language, and cognitive ability in…

This study examined the reading performance on the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery--Revised (WLPB-R), in Spanish and English, of 183 Spanish-speaking students in kindergarten through grade 2 in 3 schools with 4 instructional programs for English learners: structured English immersion, transitional bilingual, developmental bilingual, and dual…

This study examined whether oral reading fluency in a child's first language (Spanish) as assessed by Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) was related to oral reading fluency in a second language (English) and whether Spanish oral reading fluency probes administered in the fall were predictive of English oral reading fluency outcomes for spring of…

As a result of recent federal legislation, school districts are being required to have all students reading at grade level by the year 2012. Such an exceedingly lofty goal cannot be achieved without powerful intervention programs. Here is a guide for districts and schools that outlines an intervention program for students in grades 1-3 who…

In the 1990s, teacher educators began to hear about the importance of studying and reporting on "best practices" in literacy learning to narrow the gap between high-and low-performing students. Of the studies produced, few of them looked to research in areas such as bilingual education for guidance on how to improve teaching reading for…

This article describes the word reading skills in English and Spanish for a sample of 244 Spanish-speaking, English-learning (hence, bilingual) students in first grade and presents a predictive model for English word reading skills. The children in the study were assessed at the end of kindergarten and first grade, respectively. Data were gathered…

Using an extant database, we examined three grade 1 criteria for identifying response to intervention (RTI) in English language learners (ELLs): (a) set benchmark criteria with a standard score above 95 (37th %ile) on both decoding and comprehension measures and a raw score of 40 or more correct words per minute (CWPM) on oral reading fluency; (b)…

This study examined the effectiveness of a transitional Spanish-English bilingual program, Academic Language Acquisition (ALA), in enhancing K-5 students' English-language proficiency, as well as their English performance in academic subject areas, in comparison with the Structured English Immersion (SEI) process. An existing reading program,…

Studies investigating the role gesture plays in communication claim gesture has a minimal role, while others claim that gesture carries a large communicative load. In these studies, however, the role of gesture has been assessed in a context where speech is understood and could easily carry the entire communicative burden. We examine the role of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a supplemental peer-mediated reading program on reading achievement of first graders (N = 76) in a two-way bilingual immersion (TWBI) program. Nearly 80% of students were Hispanic; of these, 24 were identified as English language learners (ELLs). Classrooms were randomly assigned to…

This study has been done to gather data as to whether there is improvement in vocabulary development, reading comprehension and reading fluency when a child is reading aloud and he or she has a reading companion as opposed to not having a reading companion. As this literature review indicates there has been a lot of research on the benefits of…

This study determined the degree to which the phonological and executive components of memory reflect language-specific capacities in Spanish and English vocabulary. We tested whether the memory processes in a sample of English language learners found in Grade 1 also emerged in Grade 2. For the total sample (N=90), Grade 1 English STM measures…

This qualitative study investigated the writing processes of eight emergent bilingual children as they composed stories in two languages in a Writing Workshop (WW) context. The research was situated in two grade 1 classrooms in a Spanish/English Two-Way Bilingual Education program in the north-eastern USA. For six months, researchers observed…