Understanding DLLs’ reading development by exploring child- and text-level factors outside the SVR framework
Understanding DLLs’ reading development by exploring child- and text-level factors outside the SVR framework
Though many Dual Language Learners (DLLs) become proficient readers in English, most do not (NAEP, 2019). The proposed symposium begins by using latent profile analysis to establish that, as early as PreK, DLLs are overrepresented in the “risk for reading failure” profile. Subsequent papers explore both child- and text-level factors that may contribute to variability within and across DLL readers from Kindergarten to fifth grade. Paper 2 investigates how kindergarteners’ metalinguistic skills, such as morphological awareness, predict spelling and word reading in second grade. Paper 3 investigates the extent to which working memory contributes to third graders’ reading comprehension in Spanish and English. Paper 4 explores the effect of text type and difficulty on comprehension among DLLs through 5th grade. Together, this work underscores that reading comprehension is not a unitary construct; rather, complex interactions that vary across readers and texts should be considered in future reading research with DLLs.