Creating a space for bilingualism: Using two languages to assess and accelerate second language reading comprehension

The purpose of this study was to examine how fourth grade Spanish-English speaking bilingual students participated differently in English-as-a-second-language (ESL) literature groups when they were invited to use all of their linguistic resources versus when they were restricted to communicating in English only. The theoretical underpinning was that a student's learning burden is lessened when text comprehension is facilitated by access to all previous knowledge regardless of the language of acquisition. This mixed methods study employed a within group repeated measures design in which each student experienced all treatment conditions and completed a comprehension measurement activity following each literacy event.;Discourse analyses revealed that bilingual students use all of their linguistic resources when processing information, communicating with others, and interacting with text regardless of discussion format. There was no evidence that students were confused by the presence of two languages, and data indicated that students were able to restrict themselves to one language or the other when required by external circumstances. Rigid language restrictions reduced students' opportunities to learn and educators' opportunities to teach.;Further, students' written recalls were scored using pausal unit analysis. Findings indicated that, on average, students included more substantive reproductions of the texts when encouraged to do so using a bilingual format than when restricted to English only. Further, a repeated measures ANOVA (topic x discussion format), revealed that there was a highly significant interaction between topic and language of discussion (p = .016). Background experiences shaped students' abilities to share their comprehension by language format. These empirical data are interpreted as indicators of the importance of culturally and linguistically sensitive educational environments for bilingual learners.