Common depictions of the simple view of reading (SVR), in both research and practice, describe reading comprehension difficulties by using the dichotomous variables of "poor" and "good" for each of its three constructs. But these fail to accurately capture the role the product of the two subcomponents of word recognition and…

Although nearly one in 10 U.S. students is an English Learner (or EL), the definition of the term EL varies considerably from state to state, as does the means of assessing English language proficiency and the period of time for which the label is applied to individual students. As EL populations are growing throughout the U.S., both in school…

This brief emphasizes the importance of English learner reclassification in California, where over 19 percent of students are classified as English learners. It outlines the high-stakes nature of this process, particularly under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which mandates uniform criteria for exiting English learner programs. The four…

Most English learners (ELs) eventually gain sufficient English proficiency to be reclassified and receive instruction without linguistic supports. Though well-identified, prior regression discontinuity estimates for the effect of reclassification are estimated too imprecisely to detect policy-relevant effects. Applying a student fixed-effect…

Early literacy proficiency is a crucial predictor of later reading success, but research in this area often overlooks the unique challenges faced by English Learners (EL). This study addressed a significant gap in the literature by investigating the relationships between Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) scores, English…

We introduce a short answer scoring engine made up of an ensemble of deep neural networks and a Latent Semantic Analysis-based model to score short constructed responses for a large suite of questions from a national assessment program. We evaluate the performance of the engine and show that the engine achieves above-human-level performance on a…

This study proposes a classification method for multiple text reading test formats in English language proficiency tests. A preliminary study involving 11 proficiency tests revealed two tests that fit the scope of the main study. Results show that multiple text reading test formats use complementary texts rather than conflicting texts. As for…

This study examined the influence of cognate status and language distance on simultaneous bilingual children's vocabulary acquisition. It aimed to tease apart effects of word-level similarities and language-level similarities, while also exploring the role of individual-level variation in age, exposure, and nontarget language proficiency. Children…

The English learner (EL) population has grown by 35% in the last 20 years. However, in addition to new students being identified as ELs, the EL subgroup is being inflated by students who are not being reclassified within a reasonable and developmentally appropriate timeframe. These students, often labeled long term ELs (LTELs), are a product of…

Building up on studies that have revealed L2 transfer of imperfective meaning from one Romance language into another [Salaberry, M. R. (2005). Evidence for transfer of knowledge of aspect from L2 Spanish to L3 Portuguese. In D. Ayoun & R. Salaberry (Eds.), "Tense and aspect in romance languages: Theoretical and applied perspectives"…

This study aims to evaluate the extent to which Taylor Swift's song lyrics incorporate vocabulary from the Oxford 3000 and 5000 word lists and to categorize these words based on CEFR levels. The goal is to narrow down the vast selection of songs available to EFL learners, focusing on the most essential vocabulary to enhance their learning…

The English learner (EL) population, specifically Spanish-speaking ELs, has more than doubled in the last decade in the United States. Bilingual education programs seek to prepare ELs to master grade-level content and improve their English proficiency. English learners who demonstrate English proficiency by meeting state criteria can be…

The present study aimed to analyze the developmental trajectories of English achievement and exposure time through private education, utilizing univariate and multivariate latent growth curve analysis. This study used a subset of the Gyeonggi Education Panel Study data from 2012 to 2017. The results indicated consistent disparities in the growth…

English proficiency assessments have become a necessary metric for filtering and selecting prospective candidates for both academia and industry. With the rise in demand for such assessments, it has become increasingly necessary to have the automated human-interpretable results to prevent inconsistencies and ensure meaningful feedback to the…

Challenges in reading Chinese as a foreign language involve the large proportion of two-character compound words which have complex intra-word morphological structures and scriptal distance between learner's native language (L1) and Chinese as a second or foreign language. This study extended a previous investigation on the processing of Chinese…