Reading instruction and Asian language-minority learners' and native-English-speaking students' English reading ability growth

There is a lack of knowledge regarding reading development and predictors of reading development for Language Minority students (LMs) such as Asians. In particular, the research base is limited regarding the effectiveness of different reading instructional emphases for Asian LMs. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether language status (Asian LMs versus Native-English-speakers [NE-speakers]) moderated the relationship between early reading instructional emphasis/amount and reading growth from kindergarten through eighth grade. The sample consisted of 6,715 NE-speakers and 242 Asian LMs from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999. Hierarchical Linear Modeling growth curve analyses were conducted.;The main conclusions were that (1) Students' language status did not moderate the relationship between two aspects of instructional emphasis, the degree to which meaning was emphasized or the overall amount of reading instruction, with reading ability growth---neither in kindergarten nor in first grade. (2) However, by first grade, students' language status did moderate to some extent the relationship between the degree to which teachers emphasized sounds/letters during the first grade year with reading ability growth. The most salient differences in the growth patterns were at initial takeoff rate at the end of first grade and in the pattern of deceleration through the middle grades. (3) Turning to the pattern of reading ability growth for the two language groups as a whole, regardless of degree of reading instructional emphasis on sounds/letters, the most salient differences in the two growth patterns were at initial reading ability at the end of first grade and in the pattern of deceleration through the middle grades. (4) Lastly, only in first grade (that is, not in kindergarten), on the whole, regardless of language status, students who were exposed to sounds/letters to a lesser degree than their peers in first grade displayed slightly higher reading ability by the spring of first grade. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed.