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

We also asked ELL readers how they thought their L1 influences their reading in English, Question 6: "Do you think knowing Spanish (or Vietnamese) helps you to be a better reader in English or does it make it harder? Tell me why." As Appendix A shows, more ELL- readers (14 of 19) than ELL readers (8 of 18) stated that knowing their L1 did not help them to read in English. For example:

ELL-: No. It does make it harder. 'Cause I mix stuff together, and I get so confused.

ELL-: Harder, because you pronounce the words differently.

In contrast, half of the ELL readers thought that knowing their L1 could help them to be better readers in English:

ELL : [Knowing Vietnamese] makes [reading English] better because letters in Vietnamese are the same as English.

ELL : It makes [it] sometimes easier because if you don't know a word in English, but if you know the word in Vietnamese, that's the very moment that you can remember what the word is for.

As seen in the above examples, students' interpretations of "whether or not L1 helps" seemed to differ between struggling and strong readers. One could see different levels of awareness concerning the role of L1 in English reading between these two groups as well. ELL- readers seemed to simply attribute their difficulties with English to the fact that they were learning English as their second language. Namely, simply having another language as their L1 made it harder for them to learn English. In contrast, ELL readers, seemed to be aware that there were commonalities and differences among languages and that one can apply certain aspects of linguistic knowledge in their L1 to learning another language. Therefore, ELL readers seemed to be aware that knowing another language gives them advantages for learning English.

We also asked ELL readers whether or not they rely on their L1 when they read difficult texts in English, Question 7: "When you read something difficult in English (for example, a science book), do you find it easier to understand if you think about it in Spanish (or in Vietnamese)?" As Appendix A indicates, more ELL- readers (10 of 19) than ELL readers (5 of 18) in our sample stated that thinking in their L1 helped them to understand difficult texts in English. Conversely, more ELL readers indicated that they do not think in their L1 when they read in English. The following quotes illustrate this difference:

ELL-: Yes. Well, I take my ideas from Vietnam, right? And then I pretend that it's a Vietnam book in science, and then I know it and transfer it to English, and I get better at reading.

ELL : No. I just think . . . to see . . . if there is connection to other words.

One has to remember that none of the students in this study had received any systematic instruction in their L1 from the school district; translation was never used as an instructional method, nor as a reading strategy. Also, as we have seen in the previous section, our ELL readers rated reading and writing proficiency in their L1 higher than ELL- readers did. It is unclear from this data what "thinking in L1" means when they read English. Perhaps ELL readers thought they relied less on their L1 when they read English than ELL- readers did simply because of their ease of processing English. For future studies, it is important to examine how such students' perceptions about the role of L1 in L2 reading may relate to their actual reading performance and their actual use of L1 as an L2 reading strategy.