Reading Aloud to Bilingual Students
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Reading Aloud to Bilingual Students: Examining the Interaction Patterns Between Pre-service Elementary Teachers and Bilingual Children in the Context of Small Group Read Alouds in Maintstream Classroom Settings Author: Sarah Marie Ngo Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/2528 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2012 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. BOSTON COLLEGE Lynch School of Education Department of Teacher Education, Special Education, and Curriculum and Instruction Program of Curriculum and Instruction READING ALOUD TO BILINGUAL STUDENTS: EXAMINING THE INTERACTION PATTERNS BETWEEN PRE-SERVICE ELEMENTARY TEACHERS AND BILINGUAL CHILDREN IN THE CONTEXT OF SMALL GROUP READ ALOUDS IN MAINSTREAM CLASSROOM SETTINGS. Dissertation by SARAH MARIE NGO submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2012 © Copyright by Sarah Marie Ngo 2012 ABSTRACT READING ALOUD TO BILINGUAL STUDENTS: EXAMINING THE INTERACTION PATTERNS BETWEEN PRE-SERVICE ELEMENTARY TEACHERS AND BILINGUAL CHILDREN IN THE CONTEXT OF SMALL GROUP READ ALOUDS IN MAINSTREAM CLASSROOM SETTINGS. Author: Sarah Marie Ngo Advisor: Curt Dudley-Marling, Ph.D. Federal legislation now requires that all children participate in large-scale, statewide assessments in English in an effort to increase accountability and bolster student achievement (Abedi, Hofstetter, & Lord, 2004; Hass, 2002). Students labeled as “English language learners” (ELLs) consistently score dramatically lower on English language and literacy assessments than their native speaking peers (Au & Raphael, 2000; National Center for Educational Statistics, 2011). Additionally, most mainstream teachers are not adequately prepared to meet the linguistic challenges that ELLs face in classroom settings (Lucas & Villegas, 2011). Reading aloud to bilingual students, specifically using components of a shared reading model (Holdaway, 1979), potentially provides an avenue for meaningful language and literacy development. While a corpus of research exists about reading aloud with English-speaking students, there has been limited research on its use with bilingual students in classroom settings. Drawing on a sociocultural theoretical framework (Gee, 1996; Vygotsky, 1978), the Output Hypothesis of second language acquisition (Swain, 1985), ethnographic perspectives (Heath & Street, 2008), action research (Stringer, 1999) and discourse analysis (Bloome et al., 2008), this qualitative study examined the practice of four pre-service elementary teachers reading aloud English texts (fiction, expository, and poetry) to small groups of bilingual students across four grade levels. The research was conducted to study pre-service teachers’ language and literacy teaching practices and pre-service teacher-bilingual student interaction patterns in read aloud contexts to better understand their potential for bilingual student language and literacy learning. Additionally, the study provided beginning teachers with professional development geared towards helping pre-service teachers to meet the unique language and literacy needs of bilingual students. It was found that pre-service teachers consistently strived to develop students’ word knowledge and support text comprehension. In doing so, teachers utilized a variety of teaching practices and linguistic patterns of interaction during read alouds which varied across teachers. The argument is made that these various teacher moves and discourse patterns led to qualitatively different types of interactions and affordances for bilingual student learning. Implications for mainstream classroom teachers and teacher education programs are provided. i Acknowledgements To Dr. Curt Dudley-Marling, who has guided me through the dissertation process. Thank you for all your help and support. I appreciated your prompt and thorough responses to all of my questions and concerns. Most importantly, thank you for your patience and understanding as I attempted to balance my dissertation and family life. To Dr. Maria Brisk who served as a reader on my committee. Your insightful feedback and knowledge about my dissertation topic were extremely helpful. To Dr. Patrick McQuillian who served as a reader on my committee. I appreciated all your feedback and willingness to discuss my on-going progress and career aspirations whenever necessary. To Dr. Annie Homza who provided me with tremendous learning opportunities while working together on the Read Aloud Project. Your guidance, intellect, and friendship have been invaluable to me during my graduate work. To Lisa Andries D’Souza- your friendship is one of the best things that came out of our doctoral program. I always looked forward to my phone breaks with you during my writing. Thanks for lending a listening ear and helping to keep me grounded. Your on- going friendship and encouragement helped pull me through this long and challenging journey. To my parents, Jan and Larry, for their unwavering faith in my abilities and extraordinary support. Your unconditional love has been instrumental in all my life achievements. To my siblings, Lisa, Theresa, and Tony, you have always been supportive, understanding, and encouraging despite my flaws. To my grandparents, Paul and Regina, who have modeled hard work and love and devotion to family. To my Aunt Chrissy for your much needed advice and steadfast encouragement through this process. To Oma and Opa for all your love and support. Oma’s continued passion for education and children is an inspiration. To “my girls” (Madeline and Annalise) for bringing such love, joy, and happiness to my life! You brought me so many welcomed breaks from “mommy’s works and meetings.” To Jeffie for providing such wonderful care for Maddie and Annalise while I worked. I appreciate that they were able to spend many happy hours reading, playing, exploring, and drawing with you while I was working on my dissertation. To my husband, Peter, my best friend and strongest supporter. Thank you for all of your love, kindness, and most importantly, patience. Your steadfast encouragement when I hit the point where finishing seemed nearly impossible was paramount to my success. Your ii careful proofreading, insight, and willingness to listen and discuss my on-going setbacks and progress were invaluable through this process. You made many sacrifices over the past several years that enabled me to accomplish this lifetime goal. I’ll never be able to put into words all that you are to our family! My thoughts are with my nana and pap pap as I complete my dissertation. I wish you were here to celebrate this achievement with me. I know you were watching over me as I met this monumental challenge. I dedicate this to you. iii Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE: Introduction ........................................................................................1 Introduction and Background ........................................................................................1 The Problem ...................................................................................................................4 Rationale and Purpose of the Present Study ................................................................10 CHAPTER TWO: Review of the Literature Related to Reading Aloud ...................22 Major Reviews of the Literature on Reading Aloud in Classroom Settings................24 Summary and Critique of Major Reviews of the Literature on Reading Aloud in Classroom Settings .................................................................................28 The Reader Component in Read Alouds .....................................................................30 Book Reading as a Means of Improving Students’ Vocabulary Skills ..................30 Summary and Critique of Book Reading as a Means of Improving Students’ Vocabulary Skills ...................................................................................35 Other Book Reading Studies Focused on Children’s Language and Literacy Development ............................................................................................38 Summary and Critique of Other Book Reading Studies Focused on Children’s Language and Literacy Development ..................................................42 Review of Reader-Listener Interactional Patterns During Book Reading .............45 Summary and Critique of Reader-Listener Interactional Patterns During Book Reading.........................................................................................................54 The Listener Component in Read Alouds ....................................................................55 Children’s Age and/or Familiarity with Book Reading .........................................57 Individual Child Characteristics ............................................................................59 Whether the Text had been Read Repeatedly to Children .....................................62 Summary and Critique of the Listener Component in Read Alouds .....................63 The Text Component in Read Alouds .........................................................................65 Summary and Critique of the Text Component in Read Alouds ...........................71 Conclusion and Connection to Current Study .............................................................74 Sociocultural Theoretical Framework..........................................................................75