Biliteracy: Negotiating reading comprehension across two languages

All fourth graders face increased academic rigor when they must read to learn across the content areas. For English language learners, the fourth grade is a time when not meeting the learning expectations often means getting referred to special education.; This study examined the reading comprehension strategies of 45 fourth grade English language learners of Mexican heritage who attended public schools in South Central Texas. A researcher-designed Reading Protocol was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data through a mixed-method design.; Two ANOVAS were conducted to analyze the quantitative data. The first analysis indicated that there was no group difference between limited and fluent speakers of English and their mean scores across three fourth grade expository passages. The second analysis indicated that there was no group difference between those students that passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) and those that did not and their mean scores across three fourth grade expository passages. The findings suggested that all the participant English language learners experienced difficulty reading these texts. Multiple regression analyses were also conducted. A critical value of p < .05 was set. The predictor variables consisted of three reading comprehension scores, the level of English language proficiency, and the number of years of U.S. schooling. The criterion predictor was the TAKS percentile rank. The results indicated a significant level for these composite predictor variables (p < .004). The findings indicated that one variable could not be valued by educational policy or instruction at the exclusion of the others.; Analyses of the qualitative data examined the English language Learners' use of metalinguistic knowledge in both Spanish and English, their use of reading comprehension strategies, and their knowledge of genre and text structure to negotiate reading comprehension. The results indicated that successful readers perceived reading as a unitary process without distinction of language; they used reading comprehension strategies bi-directionally across Spanish and English; and their awareness of cognates stemmed from a transactional approach to reading that integrated metalinguistic and metacognitive knowledge. Additionally, all the participants needed increased explicit instruction on genre and text structure.