Dual-Language and English-Only Students' Classroom Language Use and Reading Comprehension

• In Event: The Role of Language Input and Production in Academic Language and Literacy Development of Dual Language Learners

Abstract

Classroom talk is a key topic in the educational sciences given its relation to literacy (Howe & Abedin, 2013). Research findings suggest that the amount of time spent on classroom-based talk is a strong predictor of middle-school students’ literacy achievement, including reading comprehension (Murphy et al., 2009). Yet, because this line of research has relied on aggregate data (i.e., classroom-level talk), there is a limited understanding of individual student’s classroom-based language use and how it relates to reading comprehension. Less is known about the features of dual language learners’ (DLLs’) classroom-based language use, despite relative underperformance on English language and reading comprehension measures (Hammer et al., 2014). This study fills these gaps in the literature by 1) describing language use over the school year in middle-school classrooms, serving primarily DLLs and 2) investigating the relation between individual students’ language use and reading comprehension.
There is a well-established link between language and reading comprehension skills (Catts et al., 1999; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). The Lexical Quality Hypothesis (Perfetti & Hart, 2002; Perfetti, 2007) explains that successful reading requires access to high-quality lexical representations (i.e., form and meaning knowledge). High-quality form and meaning knowledge can be acquired through high-quality language experiences, ones in which words and their multiple components (e.g. form, meaning) are encountered frequently. Thus, we expected a positive relation between students’ language use and reading comprehension.
Participants were 222 sixth-graders (M age=11.70 years; SD=0.63; females=130; males=92; Classrooms=25). 156 dual language learners self-reported speaking a language other than English at home; 66 English-only students self-reported speaking only English at home.
Classroom-based language was assessed through audio-recordings of English Language Arts classes. Three waves (fall, winter, spring) of audio-recordings (~20 minutes each) were transcribed using the CHAT (Codes for Human Analysis of Transcriptions) system of CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System; MacWhinney 2014). Transcripts were run through CLAN and filtered through a high-frequency word list (Chall & Dale, 1995) to obtain sophisticated vocabulary scores (Types: # different words; Tokens: # of total words). Reading comprehension (assessed in fall, spring) was the correct score out of 30 multiple-choice passage comprehension questions on the Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE; Williams, 2001).
Table 1 shows growth on reading comprehension (GRADE; p < 0.001), but relatively stable language use over the year, with students using ~22 total sophisticated words in a 20-minute period (~15 Types). While language use was slightly higher in the fall than spring (p < 0.05), there was no difference between winter and spring (p > 0.05). There was also no difference between DLLs’ and EO’s language use (p’s > 0.05). Multiple regression analyses (Table 2), showed a positive relation between the number of total sophisticated words used and reading comprehension (p < 0.05) for both DLLs and EOs (i.e., no language status*comprehension interaction). In line with the Lexical Quality Hypothesis, these findings suggest that increasing DLLs’ classroom-based language use helps promote their reading comprehension, perhaps by way of strengthening lexical representations.

Authors

• Perla B. Gamez, Loyola University Chicago

• Nonie K. Lesaux, Harvard University

• Holly Griskell, Loyola University Chicago