| This quasi-experimental study investigated whether and how an approach to classroom discussion, Collaborative Reasoning (CR), impacts the development of oral and written English of Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs). Seventy-five Hispanic students from four fifth-grade classrooms, including two mainstream classrooms and two transitional bilingual classrooms, participated in the study. A classroom from each pair of the mainstream and transitional bilingual classrooms was randomly assigned to implement CR discussions while the other two served as controls. Prior to the intervention, all students were assessed on vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension. After a four-week intervention, all students were assessed on storytelling, listening and reading comprehension, reflective essay writing, motivation, and English learning attitudes.;Results showed that experiences of CR discussions accelerated ELLs' oral and written English. The CR group performed significantly better than the control group on reading comprehension. Only the mainstream-class students, but not the bilingual-class students, significantly benefited from CR discussions on listening comprehension. The CR group produced more coherent narratives in a wordless-picture storytelling task. The reflective essays written by the CR group, with greater length and vocabulary diversity, contained a significantly greater number of reasons, counterarguments, and use of text evidence. CR discussions enhanced students' motivation and engagement, perceived benefits of discussions, and attitudes toward English learning. These results altogether yield significant implications for the literacy instruction practices of ELLs. |
