Adolescent Literacy: Addressing the Needs of EnglishLanguage Learners

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Adolescent Literacy Addressing the Needs of
English-Language Learners

• Diane August
• Center for Applied Linguistics

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Demographic Information

• In the 2002-2003 school year, about 11 of K-12
  students were identified as limited English
  proficient.
• Adolescent English-language learners comprised
  6.4 of the student population in secondary
  schools and the proportion is expected to grow.
• Between 1992-1993 and 2002-2003, the total K-12
  enrollment grew by 11 the ELL enrollment grew
  by 85.

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Demographic Information

• English-language learners in the United States
  are overwhelmingly from low SES backgrounds.
• In 2000, 60 of ELLs in grades 6 to 12 were poor.
  These rates were nearly twice as high as the
  rates for English proficient students in
  comparable grades.
• SES dramatically influences the rate of English
  acquisition-- with poorer children taking much
  longer to acquire these skills (2-5 years for
  oral proficiency and 4-7 years for academic
  English).

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Demographic Information

• There are many more native-born limited English
  proficient adolescents than foreign born limited
  English proficient students.
• 57 of all LEP adolescents are US-born children,
  second or third generation.
• This suggests that these students are not being
  educated very well.
• Also suggest that need for differentiated
  programming for this population.

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Demographic Information

• There is a serious disparity between the
  distribution of resources and the distribution of
  language-minority students.
• Higher proportion of foreign-born immigrants are
  found in secondary schools than in elementary
  schools.
• Spending on language programs is concentrated at
  the elementary school level.

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Importance of Tailoring Interventions to this
Population

• Findings from the National Literacy indicate
  teaching specific reading and writing elements
  can be beneficial to second-language learners.
• However, the effects observed in these studies
  were smaller than those found by the comparable
  National Reading Panel studies, and this was
  particularly true for reading comprehension.
• The smaller effect sizes, particularly for
  reading comprehension, suggest the potential
  importance of building greater knowledge of oral
  English simultaneously with literacy. It also
  suggests the need for modifications to
  mainstream literacy practices for this
  population of students.

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Effective Teacher Training

• Important to prepare content area teachers to
  teach second-language learners
• Provide an endorsement or coursework related to
  teaching ELLs
• Important that English-as-a-second language
  teachers have content area knowledge

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Effective Professional Development

• SIOPP Model
• Teachers present curricular content concepts
  aligned to state standards through strategies and
  techniques that make academic content
  comprehensible to students. While doing so,
  teachers develop students academic English
  language skills across the four domains--reading,
  writing, listening, and speaking.

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Effective Professional Development

• Quality Teaching for English-language learners
  (grades 8-12)
• Work with both teachers and professional
  developers
• Professional development for teachers
• Participation/observation
• Implement with mentoring/coaching
• Implement with consultation

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Professional Development

• Title III National Professional Development
  Program
• Next completion Spring 2007
• Estimates 35 million
• Five year grants
• Grants to IHEs (with LEAs, SEAs)
• Improve professional qualifications of teachers

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Effective Instruction

• Value of native language instruction
• Meta-analysis of all acceptable studies that
  compared English-only instruction with
  instruction that used some native language
• 15 acceptable studies that generated 71 effect
  sizes across 26 samples
• Bilingual education has a statistically
  significant positive effect on reading in English.

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Effective Instructional Programs

• Bilingual and Dual Language Programs
• Newcomer Programs
• Using content area curriculum to teach content
  knowledge and language and literacy
• Current Work of the National Center

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Effective Assessment Practices

• For Accountability Purposes
• Ensure students can take accommodated assessments
  for 3-5 years, including assessments administered
  in students first language
• For Instructional Purposes
• Align assessment with high standards and use
  assessments on an ongoing basis to improve
  achievement

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National Literacy Panel of Language Minority
Students and Youth

• Develop an objective research review methodology
• Search the research literature on the development
  of literacy for English language learners
• Analyze the research literature
• Develop a final report with recommendations for
  research

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National Literacy Panel of Language Minority
Students and Youth

• Funding
• Institute of Education Sciences
• With some additional support from
• National Institute for Child Health and
  Development
• Office of English Language Acquisition

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National Literacy Panel on Language Minority
Children and Youth

• Panelists
• Diane August, Principal Investigator
• Timothy Shanahan, Chair
• Fred Genesee
• Esther Geva
• Michael Kamil
• Isabelle Beck
• Linda Siegel
• Keiko Koda
• David Francis

• Claude Goldenberg
• Robert Rueda
• Margarita Calderon
• Gail McKoon
• Georgia Garcia
• Senior Research Associates
• Cheryl Dressler
• Nonie LeSaux
• Senior Advisors
• Donna Christian
• Catherine Snow
• Frederick Erickson

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National Research and Development Center on
English-language Learners

• Focus on adolescent literacy
• Collaboration among institutions
• University of Houston
• Center for Applied Linguistics
• University of Texas, Austin
• Harvard
• Cal State Long Beach

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National Clearinghouse on English Language
Acquisition

• http//www.ncela.gwu.edu/
• NCELA collects, analyzes, synthesizes and
  disseminates information about language
  instruction educational programs for English
  language learners and related programs. It is
  funded by the U.S. Department of Education's
  Office of English Language Acquisition, Language
  Enhancement Academic Achievement for Limited
  English Proficient Students (OELA) under Title
  III of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001