Stories are complex linguistic constructions through which we share our interpretations of the social world. The ability to comprehend and produce stories is referred to as narrative competence. Narrative competence is rooted in social interactions in the preschool years that foster a sense of story structure and familiarity with story language. It has been shown to play a critical role in reading and writing achievement in the elementary school years since the language of literacy, like the language of storytelling, is predominantly decontextualized. The mastery of decontextualized language poses a significant challenge for children who enter kindergarten with little previous exposure to the majority language. The storytelling ability of these children was the focus of the present study. The study's primary aim was to examine second language narrative competence across the kindergarten years by comparing the fictional stories generated by a cross-section of EL1 and ELL junior and senior kindergarten children in response to a wordless picture book from the point of view of macrostructure (story structure), microstructure (story language), and the use of evaluative language. Grade and gender differences across and within language groups were also considered. A second aim of the study was to examine the relationship between narrative competence and receptive vocabulary and between narrative competence and print-based emergent reading skill. Overall, the results suggested that the ELL children's narratives were comparable to those of their EL1 counterparts with respect to most measures of microstructure, and with respect to macrostructure and evaluative language use. The one clear language-based difference favouring the EL1 children related to morpho-syntactic quality. Age-related differences were obtained on most measures and the results suggested parallel developmental trajectories across language groups. Gender was found to play a more prominent role in ELL than EL1 narrative performance. Few aspects of narrative were predicted by receptive vocabulary, suggesting dissociation between word- and discourse-level skills, particularly among the ELL children. On the other hand, emergent literacy scores predicted several aspects of microstructure, macrostructure and evaluative language use. The study provides evidence that various aspects of narrative competence might be differentially related to vocabulary and emergent literacy skills in ELL and EL1 kindergarten children.

This thesis comprised two longitudinal studies examining the role of morphological awareness in Chinese and English reading among Chinese children. In Study 1, participants were 84 kindergarten and first grade Chinese-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) from Canada. Children’s morphological awareness, vocabulary and reading comprehension in English were assessed at two measurement points spaced one year apart. Study 2 involved the Chinese-Canadian children from Study 1, and 98 kindergarteners and first graders from China. Their morphological awareness, vocabulary and reading comprehension in Chinese were measured at the beginning of two successive academic years. Study 1 showed that for the ELLs, morphological awareness explained increasingly large proportions of variance in English vocabulary and reading comprehension with age. In Study 2, compound awareness significantly predicted Chinese vocabulary for children from both countries. Taken together, the two studies substantiated that morphological awareness contributes to reading in Chinese and English across different language-learning contexts.

Research studies demonstrate that L2 learners participate more equally when using synchronous computer mediated communication (CMC). However, most of these studies have involved adult students only, in college or university settings. Few have explored the use of synchronous CMC with elementary school learners. Thus, this case study explored the participation of Grade 8 native speakers and English language learners as they interacted in the online environment. It examined the number of turns taken by each participant, the discourse functions used, as well as participants’ perceptions of communicating online. This was accomplished through collection of chat transcripts, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. It was found that native speakers tended to take more turns in online discussions. Also, responses and questions were the discourse functions that were used most by participants in this research. Finally, the students viewed this mode of communication favourably, and believed that it aided their communication with one another.

Existing mainstream ESL pedagogy tends to be functionalist and assimilationist, ignoring the complex sociopolitical dimensions of language learning (Pennycook, 2001). In addition, critical inquiry is often deemed too difficult for English language learners (ELLs), hence seldom introduced in ESL classrooms. However, academic proficiency, deep understanding and critical literacy (CL) are needed for school success and world citizenship. This doctoral thesis describes a year-long participatory action research with a class of new immigrant ELLs (aged 12-14) in a city in Ontario, Canada. Informed by CL and critical pedagogy, the research aimed to find out how CL education played out in a beginning ESL classroom--the instructional choices made, negotiation of teacher and student identities, processes and challenges involved, and the extent to which students’ critical/literacy development was facilitated. Based on Cummins’ Academic Expertise Framework (2001), the sociocultural theory of learning (e.g., Lave & Wenger, 1991; Vygotsky, 1987) and Guthrie’s (1996, 2004) conception of literacy engagement, an integrative instructional approach was adopted for the design and implementation of the CL program. The program addressed ELLs’ academic language needs while affirming their cultural identities and developing their critical ability in dealing with struggles amidst their acculturation process. Following the principles of critical action research, this study was done through cycles of reflection, action and evaluation with different sets of qualitative data which were coded and analysed based on phenomenological research methods. The results showed a significant improvement in students’ level of self-confidence and critical/literacy development while the ESL teacher changed from being sceptical of doing CL work with beginning ELLs to fully embracing it and seeing herself as an advocate for ELLs. This research showed that with careful scaffolding and guided practice of functional, cultural and CL skills grounded in a collaborative learning community that set high expectations on students’ critical and creative abilities, students achieved substantial critical/literacy engagement and development. The question educators should ask is not “At which grade or language level can students be introduced to CL?”, but rather “Are we providing support and scaffolds to students’ learning that are geared towards helping them to gradually become critical language users?”

The current longitudinal research examined the story-writing development of students from Grades 4 to 6 (N = 178). All students began formal schooling in English in Grade 1. Students were classified in Grade 4 as typical readers (scoring above the 40th percentile in both decoding and reading comprehension; n = 72), poor decoders (scoring below the 30th percentile in decoding; n = 53), or poor comprehenders (scoring above the 40th percentile on decoding but below the 30th percentile, relative to their language group, in reading comprehension; n = 26). Students who spoke English as a first language (EL1s) and English language learners (ELLs) were proportionally represented in each reading group. A series of repeated measures ANOVAs tested the effects of language and reading group on students’ cognitive, linguistic and literacy development. Despite the fact that ELLs did not achieve native-like English language proficiency, showing delays in vocabulary and reading comprehension, they matched their EL1 peers in all other areas of cognitive and literacy development, including story-writing. Both EL1s and ELLs developed story-writing skills in a similar manner, showing significant growth from Grade 4 to Grade 6. Typically developing ELLs were thus able to attain age-appropriate story-writing levels. Additionally, poor decoders and poor comprehenders generally showed similar profiles of strengths and weaknesses, regardless of whether English was their first or second language. The major difference was that ELL poor comprehenders were more likely to have longstanding reading comprehension problems, while many EL1 poor comprehenders had improved by Grade 6. In general, poor decoders displayed more pervasive difficulties across cognitive, linguistic and literacy domains, while poor comprehenders had specific weakness in nonverbal reasoning, receptive vocabulary and listening comprehension. Nevertheless, both reading disorder groups had significant difficulties in story-writing, struggling with the mechanics of writing, sentence structure, and overall story organization. Regression analyses indicated that cognitive, linguistic and language skills were strong concurrent and longitudinal predictors of story-writing. However, the strongest predictor of Grade 6 story-writing skill was Grade 4 story-writing performance, suggesting that story-writing skills tend to be relatively stable over time. The results generally support the ‘simple view of writing’ (Berninger, 2000). Practical recommendations for assessment and instruction are presented.

Stories are complex linguistic constructions through which we share our interpretations of the social world. The ability to comprehend and produce stories is referred to as narrative competence. Narrative competence is rooted in social interactions in the preschool years that foster a sense of story structure and familiarity with story language. It has been shown to play a critical role in reading and writing achievement in the elementary school years since the language of literacy, like the language of storytelling, is predominantly decontextualized. The mastery of decontextualized language poses a significant challenge for children who enter kindergarten with little previous exposure to the majority language. The storytelling ability of these children was the focus of the present study. The study's primary aim was to examine second language narrative competence across the kindergarten years by comparing the fictional stories generated by a cross-section of EL1 and ELL junior and senior kindergarten children in response to a wordless picture book from the point of view of macrostructure (story structure), microstructure (story language), and the use of evaluative language. Grade and gender differences across and within language groups were also considered. A second aim of the study was to examine the relationship between narrative competence and receptive vocabulary and between narrative competence and print-based emergent reading skill. Overall, the results suggested that the ELL children's narratives were comparable to those of their EL1 counterparts with respect to most measures of microstructure, and with respect to macrostructure and evaluative language use. The one clear language-based difference favouring the EL1 children related to morpho-syntactic quality. Age-related differences were obtained on most measures and the results suggested parallel developmental trajectories across language groups. Gender was found to play a more prominent role in ELL than EL1 narrative performance. Few aspects of narrative were predicted by receptive vocabulary, suggesting dissociation between word- and discourse-level skills, particularly among the ELL children. On the other hand, emergent literacy scores predicted several aspects of microstructure, macrostructure and evaluative language use. The study provides evidence that various aspects of narrative competence might be differentially related to vocabulary and emergent literacy skills in ELL and EL1 kindergarten children.

Children who speak limited English are at particular jeopardy of school failure because of multiple risk factors. In the later grades, these children have difficult y making progress towards state standards in English reading and English writing. Research with bilingual children indicates that children transfer phonological awareness and writing skills across languages. However, the research on cross-linguistic transfer of early writing is sparse when compared to the phonological awareness research base. This study is important because it aims to address the gap in the literature by exploring ELLs' pathway from Spanish (L1) to English (L2) written language and moderators of this pathway. Using a sample of 110 preschool English-language learners, the children's early writing performance was compared to national norms in 2007 and 2008 using a standardized instrument that prompts them to write letters and words from dictation. The data was analyzed using commonality regression analysis and canonical correlation to examine 1) shared and unique variance of performance on the English dictation measure accounted for by English and Spanish phonological awareness 2) shared and unique variance of performance on the Spanish dictation measure accounted for by English and Spanish phonological awareness and 3) interrelationships between early writing and phonological awareness in English and Spanish. Although it was expected that the student's performance on the English dictation task would be below average when compared to national norms, the students' performance was low average. The results from commonality regression and canonical correlation analysis indicated that the greatest unique contribution to English and Spanish dictation in 2008 was Spanish dictation in 2007. Finally, the results from the canonical correlation regression indicated that the Spanish literacy skills made a greater contribution to the phonological awareness and dictation synthetic variable than did the parallel English literacy skills.

The number of linguistically and culturally diverse students entering public schools is increasing (Echeverria, Short & Powers, 2006; Williams, 2001) and mainstream teachers are responsible for making content comprehensible for these students (Clegg, 1996; Georgia Department of Education, 2008); however, test scores and graduation rates indicate that English language learners (ELLs), across the nation, are consistently underperforming on content based assessments and failing to complete high school (Carrasquillo & Rodriguez, 2006; Cruz & Thornton, 2009) . Using a constructivist lens and the concept of the instructional dynamic (Ball & Forzani, 2007), this dissertation presents the experiences of the mainstream teacher and 5 ELLs enrolled in an inclusive, single semester, secondary mainstream US Government course. Through vignettes created from observations, interviews, reflections and document analysis, this semester long qualitative case study presents the experiences of the mainstream teacher and ELLs. Constant comparative analysis of data revealed three themes (1) returning to the past; (2) navigating the classroom; and (3) preparing for the future. Continued analysis revealed five assumptions held by both the mainstream teacher and the ELLs which shaped the experiences of the participants within this mainstream classroom: (1) all members of this classroom were capable of achieving success through work; (2) achieving present success was directly linked to lessons learned from the past; (3) facilitating success means seeking to understand and interact with others (4) being a “team player” offers protection from uncomfortable situations; and (5) teachers and students expect content classes to prepare students for the future. The findings of this study capture the complexity of the mainstream classroom and imply that the success of the mainstream teacher and ELLs alike depend upon increasing appropriate professional development which maximizes the instructional knowledge of mainstream teachers, generating a supportive and collaborative school and classroom environment for teachers and students and ensuring the implementation of a relevant and immediate curriculum.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the results of the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT; Naglieri, 1997a) with a sample of English Language Learner (ELL) Mexican American children and to compare the performance on the NNAT of 122 ELL Mexican American children with children from the standardization sample. The rationale for conducting this study was the need to identify culturally sensitive and technically adequate nonverbal measures of ability for the fastest growing minority group within America’s public schools today, Mexican American children. The NNAT was administered to participants with parental consent. Statistical analyses of the scores did yield positive evidence of internal consistency for the Nonverbal Ability Index (NAI) total score of the NNAT. However, when individual clusters were analyzed, Pattern Completion, Reasoning by Analogy, and Serial Reasoning did not yield positive evidence of internal consistency. Only Spatial Visualization approached the reliability standard deemed acceptable for tests of cognitive ability. The mean differences of the NNAT scores between two independent groups were also assessed in the present study. Results of the statistical analyses did not yield statistically significant differences across age and grade factors between the scores of the ELL Mexican American sample and the standardization sample. Finally, the proposed factor structure of the NNAT was compared with the factor structure found with the ELL Mexican American sample. Goodness-of-fit test statistics indicate that the proposed four-factor structure does not fit well with the data obtained from this sample of ELL Mexican American students. Furthermore, although the NNAT is considered to be a unidimensional test of general ability, nine factors were extracted upon analysis, providing evidence that the items on each of the four clusters do not function together as four distinct dimensions with this ELL Mexican American sample. Given that the individual clusters that collectively combine to yield the NAI total score are not based on any particular model of intelligence, interpretation of specific strengths and weaknesses should be discouraged. Finally, the NNAT’s overall score should be interpreted with caution and may best be used in conjunction with multidimensional ability and/or intelligence measures.

Much controversy exists surrounding the education of Hispanic English Language Learners (ELLs). This large and growing group presents significant challenges to educators. Foremost among these challenges is the question of whether bilingual or English-only education is most appropriate for enhancing ELLs? language proficiency and achievement. Despite decades of controversy and research in the field of bilingual education, the debate is ongoing. Additionally, Hispanic ELLs are profoundly affected by other cultural and educational factors. One potentially important factor with limited research involves the academic self-efficacy of ELLs. This study examined the relationship of bilingual and English-only education to Hispanic ELLs? language proficiency, academic achievement, and academic self-efficacy. Participants were eighth-grade Hispanic students from a large southwestern school district. Data were collected from school district records, and a self-efficacy questionnaire was administered to a subsample of students. Analyses included t-tests, ANOVA, ANCOVA, and regression procedures to measure relationships between ELL students who received bilingual education (the Bilingual group) or English-only education (the Mainstream ELL group), as well as a Comparison group of non-ELL Hispanic students. It was hypothesized that the Bilingual group would demonstrate advantages over the other two groups in English proficiency, academic achievement, and academic self-efficacy. Analyses revealed few significant group differences. The Bilingual group did not attain significantly higher English proficiency than the Mainstream ELL group by third grade. The Bilingual group did not demonstrate significantly higher achievement scores than the Mainstream ELL group, but their scores were significantly higher than the Comparison group. There were no significant differences between groups on academic self-efficacy. Regression analyses indicated that the length of time spent in bilingual education did not predict students? language proficiency, achievement, or academic self-efficacy. A final analysis indicated that academic self-efficacy and third grade English proficiency scores were significant predictors of eighth-grade achievement. Conclusions indicate modest benefits for ELL students attending bilingual education, but more advantages may have been evident had more years of bilingual education been provided to students. Clearly, increased attention to academic self-efficacy and English proficiency may be appropriate regardless of the type of educational placement. Further studies should examine other factors affecting the quality of education provided to ELL students.