This study explores the variations in the academic trajectories of socio-demographic subgroups of English as a second language (ESL) students (N = 7527) in British Columbia, Canada. Results are compared to a native English speaker baseline (N = 37,612). Longitudinal data describing the 1997 Grade 8 cohort (i.e., students age 13, typically in their…

This study was designed to investigate the effect of English reading comprehension on cognate knowledge among a sample of Spanish-speaking bilinguals alongside their monolingual English-speaking counterparts. In order to understand this developmental relationship, the effects of English reading comprehension were controlled in regression analyses,…

The most reported outcome of programs for teaching English in Indigenous schools in Australia is that there continues to be a significant gap in the level of attainment of English language and literacy between Indigenous students as a group and other Australian students (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), 2008a,…

Many researchers and the International Test Commission's (Hambleton, 2005) caution against treating scores from different language versions of a test as equivalent, without conducting empirical research to verify such equivalence. In this study, we evaluated the equivalence of English and Malay versions of a 9th-grade math test administered in…

This comprehensive volume describes evidence-based strategies for supporting English language learners (ELLs) by promoting meaningful communication and language use across the curriculum. Leading experts explain how and why learning is different for ELLs and pinpoint specific best practices for the classroom, illustrated with vivid examples.…

This article reports on a longitudinal analysis of factors that predict the word reading skills in English and Spanish for a sample of 234 Spanish-speaking students in first grade. The children were assessed at the end of preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. Data include three subtests of the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery and a…

The explicit teaching of reading comprehension strategies has been proposed as a means to better prepare secondary school-aged students for today's information-dense, fast-paced, fast-changing global society, and to improve the academic performance of struggling adolescent readers. This proposition of a direct and positive impact of reading…

Instruction in English as a foreign language at an early age is becoming more common worldwide even though the effects of this early instruction are not yet known. This study investigated the English and Chinese language performance of students enrolled in early English immersion in a Chinese primary school. In addition, factors that could predict…

The Language Proficiency Assessment (LPA) Symposium was held to integrate the insights gained from findings emerging from the research component and the implementation of the teacher training programs of the Assessment of Language Proficiency of Bilingual Persons (ALPBP) project. This final report on the symposium consists of three component…

A study investigated the relationship between teachers' expectations of first and second grade bilingual students and reading achievement of students in English. Through classroom observation, researchers identified the expectations held by the teachers for the bilingual students and then identified teacher behaviors toward the high and low…

Presents study which evaluated L2 performance of 15 bilingual preschool children in terms of basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS) and cognitive/academic language proficiency (CALP). Results show that several aspects of L2 proficiency by which teachers frequently evaluate students' mastery of English are poor predictors of…

This study investigates the relationship between first language (Arabic) proficiency and second language (English) performance in the writing skills of Jordanian bilingual second secondary school students. Despite the linguistic distance between English and Arabic, it is postulated that Arabic writing skills can be transferred positively to the…

A study of 151 bilingual Hispanic students aged 12-18 found that both English proficiency and Spanish proficiency were significantly related to academic achievement (standardized test scores and, to a lesser extent, grade point average). Among Spanish skills, written language had the strongest relationship to academic success. Contains 39…

Discusses the dependency relation between oral language and reading in bilingual children. Based on a review of literature, proposes a model of monolingual versus bilingual reading and presents the results of an experiment designed to test the model on Chinese speaking students. (Author/GC)

Summarizes relevant research on bilingual language development and discusses implications for bilingual language assessment. Also discusses limitations in current language ability testing practices for bilinguals and proposed future directions for the development of assessment tools and practices with bilinguals. (SLD)