L2 Literacy Development Research Articles

The relationship of home and instructional environments to L2 literacy development

Home and instructional learning environments can influence children’s literacy development in English as a Foreign Language. The main objectives of this research are 1) to determine the influence of school and home elements on children’s literacy process and 2) to identify reading practices and English tasks carried out at home. The research counted with the participation of 142 pupils and their families belonging to two different bilingual schools from Seville, Spain. This study followed an ex post facto design with natural groups in which quantitative data were collected through questionnaires to families and qualitative data through observations of pupils. Data were analysed through the Mann-Whitney U test and discriminant analysis. Results show that the frequency of reading in front of children, the mothers’ help with English tasks at home, and a certain amount of extramural English influenced the literacy process. Furthermore, the study identified significant differences between the two schools in relation to literacy practices at home and parental involvement in schoolwork. The results obtained present relevant implications in promoting family training and involvement and engaging in interactive collaborations with the school.

Contingency and Multimodal Communication in the Learning Environment

From a Vygotskian (1997) theoretical perspective, teachers and learners, of necessity, need to listen and respond to one another in a meaningful way, which, significantly, entails some form of role reversal (i.e., student as teacher and teacher as student). van Lier (1996) furthered this approach in relation to second language (L2) classroom environments, emphasizing the need for conversational symmetry between students and teacher so that participation by all includes contributing individual and collective thoughts and experiences in relation to the content of a lesson, or ‘contingent interaction’, which van Lier also based on a similar approach: Instructional Conversation. Furthermore, van Lier linked his perspective to Vygotsky’s (1987) central premise that language (signs) constitutes the primary mediational tool with which we navigate ourselves and the world, which includes not only meaning (znachenie) but sense (smysl), and as applied in the case of the current study to L2 immigrant children growing up in a multilingual society. Moreover, although Vygotsky had recognized the role of proto-gesture (e.g., an infant reaching for an object that is then brought by an adult) as perhaps the earliest form of semiotic mediation, he did not concentrate on nonverbal forms of mediation, nor did van Lier. However, the current research hopes to demonstrate that speech together with nonverbal forms of communication, especially in combination (multimodal ensembles) can constitute an important aspect of creating L2 contingent interaction, and following van Lier, as connected to the Zone of Proximal Development. Additionally, emotional development (Perezhivanie) as tied to contingency and as an aspect of cooperative social relations is given treatment. Data for the study come from a second-grade classroom of L2 learners of English engaged in a read-aloud lesson directed towards L2 language and literacy development.

Using a Literacy Tutor's Reflexive Journaling for Addressing L1 Literacy Gaps in a Central Asian EMI University

Literacy support in an EMI university in Central Asia (CA) helps students with the challenging linguistic demands of tertiary study in a second (foreign) language (L2). As Kazakhstan's post-Soviet education system (Yassukova, 2020) lacks significant first-language (L1) reading-to-write education (Keck, 2014; Friedman, 2019), English L2-literacy development has become even more difficult when compared to other regions of the world. Students’ literacy capabilities need to be investigated by L2-literacy tutors in order to scaffold learning better. Questions emerge as to whether it would help that the tutor had developed her L1 literacy through the same (but chronologically-earlier) system. To unpack this question, research can draw on perspectives in language socialisation (LS) (Duff, 2012), which sees learning environments as dynamic socially/culturally situated processes. To this end, this study looks at one L2-English literacy tutor's (author 2) experiences in a tertiary Foundation writing course. The goal was to see how the tutor’s interpretations of classroom literacy problems could inform the teaching of low L1-literacy students’ writing and metalanguage. For this purpose, we studied the reflective journaling (Burton, 2005) of the tutor who wrote reflective journals during a semester-long course in early 2020. The findings indicate that reflexivity can help a tutor find solutions, and that a similarity of background seems to help a local literacy tutor understand, and respond to, many of their students’ needs.

Textual thinking as evidenced through think-alouds: Designing meanings in interpreting authentic L2 web texts

Recent scholarship in multiliteracies-oriented pedagogies has advocated for greater attention to fostering ‘textual thinking’, understood as forms of literacy that consider the complexities of semiotic choices made by authors, and their underlying meanings, rhetorical purposes, and cultural contexts. This kind of engagement with texts calls upon readers to focus on form–meaning connections, and shifts the focus of reading purposes, toward reading as a form of participation in everyday literacy practices, and reading as a way of thinking critically about representation and communication. This article presents findings from an empirical study investigating the reading processes of second language (L2) French learners while interpreting an authentic multimodal web text, guided by tasks informed by multiliteracies. A prompted think-aloud methodology was used to capture learners’ dynamic meaning-making processes. Drawn from a larger group of participants ( n = 9), the current article reports on three unique cases, documenting their engagement with different semiotic modes and their evolving interpretations. The participants performed three phases of reading tasks: skimming for predictions about topic and authorship, scanning for specific details, and tracking webs of text signals. Participants saw the question prompts prior to each task phase, and again at the end of the phase, with multiple choice response options. Findings demonstrate participants’ unique sets of interpretations and processes in terms of the way they drew differently upon various domains of background knowledge, genre knowledge, and reading strategies; the way they attended to various linguistic and non-linguistic modes; and the way the tasks guided their reading. The article concludes by suggesting several concrete instructional practices for L2 literacy development, including tasks that are adaptable for a range of languages.

About the INTER and the INTRA in age-related research: Evidence from a longitudinal CLIL study with dense time serial measurements

Abstract This is the first longitudinal study to explore the best time and timing for regular versus bilingual language exposure in (pre)primary programs, using multiple measures over time so as to focus on fluctuations, trends and interactions in individual data as well as intra-individual variation over time. We studied children who had received 50/50 bilingual instruction in German and English (so-called ‘partial CLIL’ programs) as well as children in ‘minimal CLIL’ programs with almost uniquely monolingual German instruction (90% German, 10% English). Results show that, like other individual differences (ID) variables, the age factor behaves like a dynamic entity that changes over time and affects L2 literacy development differentially at different times. Furthermore, while an early age of first bilingual language exposure has no effect on the L2 development for the children in the minimal CLIL program, early-AO bilinguals in the partial CLIL program (age of first exposure 5) outperform the older-AO bilingual group (age of first exposure 7 and 9) in terms of accuracy and (syntactic and morphological) complexity but not in terms of lexical richness and fluency.

English Spelling Knowledge and Word Reading Skills of Arabic and Japanese ESL Learners

<p><em>Previous research has demonstrated that L1 orthographic features and literacy experiences may influence some lower-level processing skills in L2 literacy development. The goal of this study is to expand understanding of this influence on the development of ESL word reading and spelling skills among a group of 49 intermediate-level Arabic learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) and a corresponding comparison group of 50 Japanese ESL learners. Data were collected on a spelling test, a reading comprehension test, and a series of word reading tasks which include reading words with a missing vowel, reading words with a missing consonant, reading a regular wordlist, and reading pseudo-words. The results indicated that at the same level of reading comprehension, the Japanese ESL group performed significantly better than the Arabic group on spelling and all the word reading measures except the accuracy and speed in reading words with a missing vowel. The study also found that the Arabic ESL learners were more adversely affected in both accuracy and speed of reading words with a missing consonant compared with reading words with a missing vowel. Furthermore, accuracy in reading words with a missing consonant was found to be the best predictor of reading comprehension for the Arabic group but for the Japanese group, spelling and accuracy in reading words with a missing consonant were both significant predictors of ESL reading comprehension. The findings were discussed in relation to previous research. Pedagogical implications were also addressed.</em></p>

The Effects of Specific Learning Difficulties on Processes of Multilingual Language Development

ABSTRACTThis article reviews current research findings on how specific learning difficulties (SLDs) impact on the processes of multilingual language development. The review includes studies of young language learners in instructed classroom settings, as well as of multilingual children in second language (L2) contexts. Starting with a definition of the concepts of disability and SLDs, it next discusses the interaction of cognitive factors with first language (L1) and L2 literacy development and L2 learning. Also outlined are possible ways in which SLDs can be identified in different L2 learning contexts. A detailed analysis of how cognitive factors influence the development of L2 skills of young learners with learning difficulties is given in the last part of the article.

Digital Literacy and Identity Formation in 21st Century Classrooms: Implications for Second Language Development

As technology is increasingly adapted for educational purposes, previous research has confirmed the impact of technology on English learners’ (ELs’) literacy development. Given the increased attention to self-based studies in second language acquisition, this paper explores how ELs are motivated to learn a second language by pursuing the imagined selves, investing in the target culture, and negotiating identities in digitally mediated contexts. The motivational capacity of identity is discussed from cognitive/psychological, social/psychological, and sociocultural perspectives. Pedagogical implications about the use of technology to facilitate L2 literacy development are discussed.

Theorizing written feedback as a mediation tool within the Sydney School’s genre pedagogy: a focus on ZPD and scaffolding

AbstractDespite the abundance of research on feedback in second language development, there is little agreement on what type of feedback is the most effective. Four perspectives emerge from the literature that investigates feedback, specifically: Second Language Acquisition (SLA), Second Language Writing (L2W), Sociocultural Theory (SCT) and the Sydney School’s genre pedagogy. The SLA and L2W approaches investigate the effectiveness of corrective feedback, the SCT and the Sydney School perspectives explore feedback as a supportive mediation tool. However, both corrective and supportive types of feedback gain importance in L2 literacy development. Therefore, this paper aims to categorise written feedback as a corrective and supportive tool drawing on the Sydney School’s genre pedagogy. An analysis of the feedback instances indicates that written feedback is more effective when it is cast in relation to students’ ZPD. The categorization presented in this paper offers a rich framework for L2 writing instructors, as it situates written feedback as a mediation tool based on the related notions of ZPD and scaffolding.

Chinese L2 Literacy Development: Cognitive Characteristics, Learning Strategies, and Pedagogical Interventions

AbstractThe field of Chinese L2 education has expanded rapidly in the past two decades. It has become a central research agenda for Chinese L2 scholars to seek answers to the question of how western learners learn to read logographic writing that is drastically different from their native languages in orthography. This paper approaches this question by focusing on the core issue of literacy development: character learning. The discussion covers the aspects of the cognitive characteristics of learners' development of their metalinguistic awareness in Chinese, the strategies they employed in the process of learning to read and write Chinese characters, and the optimum pedagogical practices to facilitate character learning.

The Effect of Using Print Media on Children’s L2 Literacy Development: A Longitudinal Study

This paper tries to examine the effect of using print media in the classroom on the children’s L2 literacy development in an EFL context. Since reading is regarded as a chief goal, in many second/foreign language teaching situations, it receives a special focus. Media as a tool for language learning/teaching, can help both instructed and non-instructed learners to overcome the difficult task of language learning. In order to determine the effects of print media usage on the development of children’s foreign language reading abilities, 30 children aged between 7-8 familiar to English alphabet were selected. Based on DIBELS performance, participants were homogenized and assigned as low group. According to National Reading Panel, story books, magazines and newspapers were used to teach five areas of reading proficiency, i.e. phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and text comprehension. After one year of instruction, based on DIBELS performance, participants were assigned to medium and high groups; implying the effect of direct instruction and print media usage in classrooms for developing foreign language reading abilities.

Blogging and Emergent L2 Literacy Development in an Urban Elementary School: A Functional Perspective

This study analyzes how a teacher in the United States used systemic functional linguistics to design a blog-mediated writing curriculum to support second grade English language learners’ (ELLs) literacy development and abilities to use computer-mediated communication tools for social and academic purposes in and out of school. The questions posed by this study relate to how blogging practices shaped a focus student’s emergent uses of print over nearly two years in a U. S. urban school serving a large Puerto Rican community. This study is informed by Halliday’s theory of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and Vygotskian conceptions of appropriation and mediation. Using a combination of ethnographic methods and the tools of genre analysis, the findings indicate that blog-mediated writing practices afforded students an expanded audience and range of purposes for literacy activities. These practices, coupled with genre-based instruction, supported the focal student’s emergent literacy development. The implications of this study relate to conceptualizing how ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunctions of language intersect through computer-mediated communication to support L2 language development.

Bi-literate bilingualism versus mono-literate bilingualism

The present study compared the early Hebrew (L2) literacy development of three groups; two groups of bilinguals — bi-literate and mono-literate Russian-Hebrew speakers, and a third group of monolingual Hebrew-speakers. We predicted that bi-literacy rather than bilingualism is the key variable as regards L2 literacy learning. In a longitudinal design, a variety of linguistic, meta-linguistic and cognitive tasks were administered at the commencement of first grade, with Hebrew reading and spelling assessed at the end of the year. Results demonstrated that bi-literate bilinguals were far in advance of both mono-literate (Russian-Hebrew) bilinguals and mono-lingual Hebrew-speakers on all reading fluency measures at the end of Grade 1. Bi-literate bilinguals also showed a clear advantage over mono-literate bilingual and mono-lingual peers on all phonological awareness tasks. The mono-literate bilinguals also demonstrated some modest gains over their monolingual peers in Grade 1 reading accuracy. All three groups performed similarly on L2 linguistic tasks. These findings confirm Bialystok’s (2002) assertion that bilingualism per se may not be the most influential factor in L2 reading acquisition. Early (L1) literacy acquisition, however, can greatly enhance L2 literacy development. The present findings also suggest that the actual mechanism of cross-linguistic transfer is the insight gained into the alphabetic principle common to all alphabetic writing systems and not merely the knowledge of a specific letter-sound code such as the Roman orthography.

Differing Reading-Writing Relationships in L1 and L2 Literacy Development?

0 The complex nature of L2 literacy has recently become an area of special concern to applied linguists and second language acquisition researchers. Carson, Carrell, Silberstein, Kroll, and Kuehn (1990), for example, studying reading and writing relationships for ESL students from two different L1 backgrounds, found that although measures of reading and writing proficiency were significantly related for their Japanese subjects in Japanese, a similar relationship held among Chinese subjects only in English. Likewise, Eisterhold (1990), in a theoretical comparison of L1 and L2 literacy development, noted two conceptual complexities in the case of the latter: Many L2 acquirers come to the task of second language literacy acquisition with well-developed L1 literacy skills; and L2 acquirers typically do not have full oral competence available in the second language to support acquisition of its literacy. Even without considering the question of spoken language influence, however, the process of L2 literacy development is a highly involved one. Studies of reading-writing relationships such as those mentioned above suggest that L2 literacy acquisition may result in varying outcomes depending on the nature of Li literacy and/or the extent to which it has been mastered (see, e.g., Alderson, 1984; Carrell, 1991; Carson, 1991). In this short report, we describe parallel studies of LI and L2 schoolbased literacy development in order to point out differences between study results which appear to highlight the complex nature of L2 literacy acquisition.

Reading-Writing Relationships in First and Second Language

The study reported in this article examined the first language and second language reading and writing abilities of adult ESL learners to determine the relationships across languages (L1 and L2) and across modalities (reading and writing) in the acquisition of L2 literacy skills. Specifically, we investigated relationships (a) between literacy skills in a first language and literacy development in a second language (i.e., between reading in L1 and L2, and between writing in L1 and L2), and (b) between reading and writing in L1 and L2 (i.e., between reading and writing in L1, and between reading and writing in L2). The subjects, Japanese and Chinese ESL students in academic settings, were asked to write an essay and to complete a cloze passage in both their first and second languages. The results indicate that literacy skills can transfer across languages, but that the pattern of this transfer varies for the two language groups. It also appears that reading ability transfers more easily from L1 to L2 than does writing ability, and that the relationship between reading and writing skills varies for the two language groups. These data suggest that L2 literacy development is a complex phenomenon for already literate adult second language learners involving variables such as L2 language proficiency, L1 and L2 educational experience, and cultural literacy practices that may be related to different patterns of L2 literacy acquisition.