Helping English learners and economically disadvantaged students read as well as their more advantaged peers is a struggle for many schools. This study tested WordGen Elementary, a program to improve fourth- and fifth-grade students' ability to understand the academic language used in school and support their reading achievement. This Study…

Background: Morphological analysis skill is the ability to problem-solve meanings of unfamiliar words by applying knowledge of morphological constituents. For vocabulary words from the academic layer of English, the major, meaning-carrying morphological constituents are Latin roots (nov meaning 'new' in innovative). The degree to which…

In this cluster randomized control trial study, the authors explored the efficacy of an intervention designed to improve second-grade English learners' knowledge of challenging, high-utility English vocabulary. The authors also examined whether the intervention had a differential effect on content words that differ on two attributes (cognate…

This paper reviews findings from four research syntheses that report the effects of academic language and/or reading interventions on language and reading outcomes for English learners who have or are at risk for learning difficulties. Studies included in the syntheses varied in research design and addressed multiple areas of reading and language.…

This mixed-methods study examined the effectiveness of the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) on the improvement of EFL students' academic reading achievement. Participants were 122 Jordanian EFL undergraduate students who were divided into two groups: experimental and control groups. Data were collected using academic reading…

Simultaneous development of academic language and reading comprehension is critical for emerging bilingual students' academic success. With a focus on reading comprehension, this study extends the research on self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) to include emerging bilingual students with learning disabilities. Through a multiple probe…

Academic language, which is characterized by the words and structure of the language of schooling, is an important teachable component of academic achievement. When compared to other strong predictors of academic achievement (e.g., decoding, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension), academic language is not as well understood or explicitly taught in…

This study reports on the conceptualization of a new construct targeting the cross-disciplinary academic language skills most relevant to school reading comprehension, targeting the validation of the Core Academic Language Skills (CALS) Instrument, a novel assessment tool which measures this construct. Participants included Grade 4-8 monolingual…