Spanish-speaking students constitute the largest subgroup of emergent bilingual (EB) students in the United States. Using longitudinal data on a nationally representative sample of Spanish-English EBs, we explore profiles of English reading trajectories and how early individual differences (i.e., early Spanish reading and English oral proficiency)…

This study examines the difficulty shown by Spanish-speaking university students in decoding pre-modified noun phrases (NPs) in English. NPs carry a heavy lexical and conceptual load and foreign language (L2) readers may be challenged by first language (L1) crosslinguistic influence triggered by cognate NPs. Therefore, this study also attempts to…

Although much research on English for specific purposes (ESP) has been conducted, little focus has been placed on investigating the mechanisms involved in ESP readers' comprehension process. This case study explored the reading process that characterizes a competent ESP reader's comprehension. A juris doctor student attending a major university in…

This paper reports on the oral reading of five grade 2 to 6 isiXhosa (L1) speakers reading isiXhosa (L1) and English (L2) texts. It examines the readers' oral reading miscues (or errors) to understand the extent to which these miscues constitute a language or a literacy problem in this group of readers. Conclusions are that (a) these readers read…

A factor analysis of a test battery that included early first-language (L1) achievement, L1 cognitive ability, second-language (L2) aptitude, and L2 affective measures to predict oral and written L2 proficiency was conducted. The analysis yielded 4 factors that were labeled Language Analysis, composed of L1 and L2 language comprehension, grammar,…

Research indicates that mothers scaffold the literacy skills of their children when jointly engaged in literacy-related activities in monolingual families (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2001). Yet little is known about the linguistic environment of English language learners in the USA, a group at high risk for reading difficulties if they are only taught…

Grounded in state-of-the-art research, this book explores how English language learners develop both the oral language and literacy skills necessary for school success. Chapters examine the cognitive bases of English acquisition, and how the process is different for children from alphabetic (such as Spanish) and nonalphabetic (such as Chinese)…