Employing a mixed methods approach, this study examined the reading motivations of dual language learners (DLLs) in Grades 3-5 in a suburban Title I school in which the student population was predominantly Hispanic. Twenty-one students completed self-report surveys and participated in interviews focused on two intrinsic motivations (involvement…

Socio-emotional constructs have been receiving increased attention as contributors to children's literacy development. However, in comparison to positive socio-emotional constructs, negative socio-emotional constructs have been understudied with respect to their role in reading achievement in both dual language learners (DLLs) and English speakers…

Success in mathematics contributes to children's future career and lifelong financial security. There have been reports that dual-language education conveys academic advantages in mathematics achievement, although there is debate. This study aimed to investigate whether dual-language education benefits children's mathematics achievement and…

Purpose: This study investigated the reading profiles of middle school Spanish-speaking emergent bilinguals (EBs) with significantly below grade level reading comprehension and whether these profiles varied in their reading comprehension performance over time. Method: Latent profile analyses were used to classify Grade 6 and 7 Hispanic EBs (n =…

This study examines differences in English language comprehension, reading fluency, and executive functions among Spanish-English bilinguals with reading difficulties. Reading difficulties examined included general reading difficulties, defined by low word reading and reading comprehension, and specific-reading comprehension difficulties, defined…

Reading and comprehending content area texts is important for academic and professional success as well as life skills necessary to maintain good health and quality lifestyle. Spanish speaking English language learners have shown poor performance on high-stakes assessments in reading comprehension. The number of Spanish speaking English learners…

A primary objective of development is to build a knowledge base. To accumulate knowledge over time and experiences, learners must engage in productive processes, going beyond what is explicitly given to generate new knowledge. Though important to accumulating knowledge, these processes are also easily disrupted. Individuals often depend on surface…

Theory of Mind (ToM), as a relevant aspect in children's socio-cognitive development, has been widely studied. Some results have suggested that bilingual children have an advantage over their monolingual peers in development of ToM. However, there is less research regarding the predictive role of ToM in performance of oral and reading…

Using data from seven cohorts of language immersion lottery applicants in a large, urban school district, we estimate the causal effects of immersion programs on students' test scores in reading, mathematics, and science, and on English learners' (EL) reclassification. We estimate positive intent-to-treat (ITT) effects on reading performance in…

In this correlational study, we analyzed data from 71 Spanish-English biliterate students in grades 3 (n=21), 4 (n=23), and 5 (n=27) with the goal of investigating the applicability of the Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990) in English and in Spanish for this population. The simple view posits that decoding…

This report contributes to understanding of the academic trajectories of ELL [English language learner] students within the FWISD [Fort Worth Independent School District]. The focus is on all students who enrolled as first-time sixth graders at the International Newcomer Academy (INA) in the 2006-2007 school year, a cohort of 48 students. These…