Learning climates for English language learners: A case of fourth-grade students in California

Bilingual Research Journal, Summer 2003 by Butler, Yuko Goto, Gutierrez, Michele Bousquet

There were 37 ELL readers from either Spanish- or Vietnamese-speaking homes and 24 NE readers in this study. Both ELL and NE readers were further classified into two groups-strong or struggling readers-based on their reading levels in English. Reading levels for ELL readers were gauged by their performance on the following measurements: (a) the San Diego Quick, a reading diagnostic used by the district that is designed to assess students' reading levels by asking them to read aloud a list of words; (b) the Stanford 9 (SAT-9), a standardized reading, writing, and mathematics test required by the state (in the present study, SAT-9 scores of 40 in normal curve equivalents and below indicated struggling readers, and scores of 60 and higher in NCE indicated strong readers); (c) a district-administered reading assessment called Running Record, an assessment widely used at the elementary school level, that prompts students to orally read passages, after which teachers analyze students' miscues and repair patterns; and (d) a recommendation from district English Language Development teachers, who instruct non-native English speakers. Because any other relevant information was unavailable to the researchers for NE students, the SAT-9 was the only criterion used to gauge the reading level of native English speakers, using the same NCE criteria noted above. The participants were randomly selected from the students who met these criteria.

There were 18 strong ELL readers of English (referred to as ELL hereafter, composed of 3 Spanish-speaking and 15 Vietnamese-speaking students), and 19 struggling ELL readers (ELL-, composed of 11 Spanish-speaking and 8 Vietnamese-speaking students). At the time of their participation in the present study (while they were enrolled in the fourth grade), all ELL readers were classified as FEP students, while all ELL- readers were still classified as limited English proficient (LEP). However, all ELL readers from both groups had acquired sufficient oral skills in English based on the IDEA Oral Language Proficiency Test (IPT). The IPT was developed in 1979 in order to identify non-English-speaking students and has been widely used for assessing English proficiency in many schools in the United States. In the present study, the district has also used the IPT to assess the need to redesignate English-language support services. All the ELLs in the present study had already reached the "fluent speakers" level based on the IPT (i.e., they had already acquired sufficient oral communicative skills in English required for district redesignation). ELL- readers in the present study were still classified as LEP students because they had not yet met the district's criteria in reading and writing, but they had already acquired enough oral fluency in English, based on the district criteria, to be admitted for redesignation. For NE students, 12 strong readers (NE ) and 12 struggling readers (NE-) were identified. The majority of the students came from Title I schools; they came from lower and lower-middle socioeconomic backgrounds. A questionnaire distributed to their parents also indicated that the participants' socioeconomic backgrounds were similar across groups.