Socioemotional Considerations in Spanish-English Emergent Bilingual Students’ Reading

• In Event: Critical Conversation: What Are the Roles of Sociocultural and Socioemotional Variables in the Science of Reading?

Abstract

Purpose
Dominant views of reading are primarily cognitive and treat readers similarly, regardless of language background. Yet, over 4.9 million Emergent Bilingual (EB) students—students who speak a language other than English at home—were enrolled in US public schools in Fall 2020, 75.5% of whom spoke Spanish at home. Treating all readers as a monolithic group is a disservice to their individuality, cultural heritage, and the funds of knowledge they bring to schools. This study thus explored non-cognitive variables (reading anxiety and motivations) in relation to reading engagement and achievement in elementary-grade Spanish EBs.

Theoretical Framework
Reading engagement theory suggests reading-related emotions, motivations and cognitions, such as cognitive strategies, influence engagement in reading (Guthrie & Klauda, 2016). Indeed, anxiety relates negatively to reading for EBs, both directly and indirectly through reading engagement (Taboada Barber et al., 2021), consistent with the Active View of Reading. Thus, we considered influences of reading anxiety on EBs’ and English Monolinguals’ (EMs’) reading engagement and achievement, alongside motivations and cognitive strategies (inferencing and comprehension monitoring) to expand understanding of these groups’ reading beyond cognitive processes alone.

Methods, Data Sources and Analysis
Participants were 339 EB and 196 EM 3rd to 5th graders (97% of low SES, per school records). The Motivations for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) (Wang & Guthrie, 2004) assessed self-efficacy and motivations. A 5-item scale assessed Reading Anxiety, based on prior work (Katzir et al., 2018; Ramirez et al., 2019). The Reading Engagement Index (REI) indicated engagement in reading (Guthrie et al., 2007). Reading Achievement was a composite of the Gates MacGinitie and the Letter-Word Identification and Passage Comprehension subtests from Woodcock Johnson IV.

Findings
Importantly, EBs were significantly lower on reading self-efficacy and significantly higher in reading anxiety than EMs, though engagement did not differ across groups. Self-efficacy significantly predicted reading achievement across groups, but reading anxiety significantly, negatively predicted reading achievement and reduced positive effects of self-efficacy on reading. Importantly, engagement partially mediated (i.e., reduced) influences of anxiety on reading achievement, and did so to a greater degree for EB students.

Significance
We provide evidence that reading engagement partially mediates the relation of reading anxiety to reading achievement, reducing anxiety’s influence on reading. For both language groups, EBs and EMs, we found that self-efficacy loses its predictive power of reading achievement when anxiety is included in predictive models. For EBs, in particular, anxiety may be especially salient and have greater consequences than for EMs, given that EBs must learn to comprehend and perform on reading tasks in English, while keeping pace with their EM peers. Prior studies have shown that greater anxiety is associated with poorer academic achievement and performance, as early as first grade (e.g., Grills et al., 2021; Grills-Taquechel et al, 2012, 2013). The significant roles of socioemotional factors, such as anxiety and self-efficacy, in reading engagement and achievement for EMs and EBs should be brought to the foreground in the discussion of reading science.

Authors

• Ana M. Taboada Barber, University of Maryland

• Kelly B. Cartwright, University of North Carolina - Charlotte