This article presents a case study of a dual-language learner (DLL) preschooler in three classroom conversations: whole group, small DLL group, and a teacher-child dyadic conversation. By comparing the student's interactions across three contexts, the authors show how dyadic conversations between teachers and students can foster the oral language…

The authors describe a 3-year project to design and test a multilingual literacy curriculum that centers language and student voice in the service of literacy development for multilingual learners. In the first 2 years, researchers, teachers, and students worked together to develop the curriculum using design-based, case study methods. In the…

Spanish-English cognates (words from ancestrally related languages similar in appearance and meaning) are plentiful in students' reading materials, but few researchers have documented elementary-age bilingual (Spanish-English) students' actual use of cognates. The authors drew from two qualitative research studies to show how bilingual students…

This teaching tip shares a research-based instructional model that uses translation to improve the English reading comprehension of English Learners. Within this instruction, English learners work collaboratively in small groups and use translation to facilitate understandings of their required English language arts curriculum. Students are taught…

The traditional monolingual and monoglossic perspective of literacy and biliteracy is compared with the perspective offered by translanguaging. The author explores how the monolingual and monoglossic view of literacy has been responsible for the failure of many Latinx bilingual students. A translanguaging perspective turns its attention toward the…

A history of poverty and low academic achievement in four urban schools pointed to the need to implement an early intervention focused on oral language and emergent literacy. The Kindergarten Early Literacy Tutoring (KELT) Program was designed to target senior (5 year old) kindergarten students most at-risk. The intervention consisted of an extra…

In this article, we describe how to help primary-grade English language learners use compare-contrast text structures. Specifically, we explain (a) how to teach students to identify the compare-contrast text structure, and to use this structure to support their comprehension, (b) how to use compare-contrast texts to activate and extend students'…

Suggests that more attention should be given to semantics if accurate word lists are to be compiled from spoken or written vocabulary. (RB)

A study of third- and fifth-grade students found that monolingual students use different reading strategies than do bilingual students reading in their second language. (FL)

This article focuses on how data from early literacy assessments can help teachers to better instruct English-language learning students. Data from 52 high-risk schools are used to compare the progress of English learners and English-only students on a variety of literacy assessments. Results reveal that a much higher percentage of…

Compares the reading strategies used by a high achieving English as a second language (ESL) student and a low-achieving native speaker of English during silent reading and concludes that the major differences between the strategies of the two were in the contextual area of reading. (FL)

Reports that reading instruction in Taiwan resembles the approach taken in North America and involves basal readers and integrated language arts activities. (FL)

Reports on a study in which the reading, language arts, and spelling achievement test scores of pupils who had completed six years of nongraded elementary reading instruction without marks were compared with those of pupils who had received traditional, graded instruction with marks. (HOD)