In an article from Reading Research Quarterly Theresa
A. Roberts examines the results of a study involving preschool students who
were English language learners. In the
study, students were randomly assigned to one of two groups, either a group
composed of students whose parents read English-language storybooks at home
with them prior to class readings, or a group composed of students whose
parents read those same storybooks at home with students in their first
language. At the end of six weeks,
students then switched: the students who had read the English storybooks at
home now began to read storybooks at home in their primary language, and the
students who had been reading storybooks at home in their primary language
began reading storybooks at home in English.
The findings are very interesting indeed. Although Roberts notes that the study would
need replication before drawing any firm conclusions, students who read with
parents at home in their primary language did significantly better on targeted
English vocabulary acquisition after reading those same books in class in
English than those students who read the book at home in English and again in
class in English.
After the switch, the students now reading at home in their
primary language fared no better than the students who now read at home in
English. Interestingly though, both
groups' rate of target vocabulary acquisition actually increased.
As the author is quick to point out, the tentativeness of
these findings should not be taken to strongly suggest the implementation of
any particular ELL literacy model. There
are a number of variables that should be considered in future studies. For example, how might students who didn't
make the switch at week six have fared against students who did? Is the increased rate of vocabulary
acquisition a result of the switch itself or just a consequence of the
multiplier effect of acquired knowledge facilitate the acquisition of new
knowledge?
At any rate, one thing is clear from the study: students who
read at home in their primary language at home do at least as well as those
that read at home in English, so that the use of one language clearly does not
detract from the learning of another. It
seems to me though that results of the primary-language-at-home readers' rapid
acquisition in the first six weeks suggests a definite possibility that a brief
literacy unit involving primary-language materials at home at the start of the
school year would, at the very least, do no harm, and quite likely do a great deal
of good to scaffold ELLs' language acquisition and overall participation at
this critical time of the year. At the
very least, cooperative development of materials and training of parents in
at-home storybook reading techniques could go a long way in building community
among ELLs and their families that will continue to be valuable throughout the
school year and beyond. The sort of
parental involvement implicit in Roberts's method is likely to have ancillary
benefits far down the line.
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