This study compared the oral language development, vocabulary, and comprehension
of English language learners (ELLs) in second grade who were participating in a five-year
longitudinal study, Project English Language and Literacy Acquisition (Project ELLA)
(Lara-Alecio, Irby, & Mathes, 2003), after two years implementation. For this comparison
study, 72 students were randomly selected from students participating in an enhanced and a
typical transitional bilingual education program. The students in the enhanced transitional
bilingual classroom received structured story reading, and practiced retelling and story
grammar for two consecutive years. Conversely, comparison group of students continued
with a typical instructional program. Retell and comprehension question measurements from
two stories were obtained from both groups, and in both English and Spanish.
The first and second research questions focused on oral language development in
both English and Spanish. Findings were measured by the length of the retell. The first
question demonstrated statistically significant results in all measurements: number of Tunits,
number of words, and number of sentences in English. Statistically significant results were also found in number of words in Spanish for the second question. However, the
number of T-units and the number of sentences in Spanish for the second question
demonstrated non-significant results. The third research question focused on the vocabulary
growth of the student after he or she was exposed to explicit and direct vocabulary
instruction. The treatment group statistically outperformed the control in this respect. The
fourth and fifth questions addressed comprehension as measured by story grammar in
English and Spanish and leveled questions addressed at the end of the first and last story.
Students participating in the treatment group demonstrated greater comprehension of the
story. The students participating in the treatment group after having participated in such a
program for two years also demonstrated how structured story reading strongly benefits oral
language growth, greater vocabulary knowledge and higher comprehension in English
literacy acquisition without forcing students to lose their first language.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/86030 |
| Date | 10 October 2008 |
| Creators | Cruz de Quiros, Ana Migdalia |
| Contributors | Lara-Alecio, Rafael |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, born digital |
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