Reading comprehension in adolescents learning English as a second language

132 Pages·2014·0.79 MB·English

by  Adrian Pasquarella

READING COMPREHSNION IN ADOLESCENT BILINGUALS LEARNING
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

by

Adrian Dominic Kenneth Pasquarella

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Graduate Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
University of Toronto

© Copyright by Adrian Dominic Kenneth Pasquarella (2014)
READING COMPREHSNION IN ADOLESCENT BILINGUALS LEARNING
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Adrian Dominic Kenneth Pasquarella
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development
University of Toronto
2014

Abstract

Two studies examined reading comprehension (RC) among adolescent bilinguals
learning English as a second language (L2). The first study examined predictors of RC
among Chinese-English and Spanish-English bilinguals. The primary objective was to
identify universal and language specific aspects of RC in both the first language (L1) and
L2, across different groups of bilinguals. Measures of RC, vocabulary, multiple measure
of morphological awareness (e.g., derivational, compound), syntactic awareness, and
word-level reading were administered in the L1 and L2 to 117 Chinese-English and 71
Spanish-English bilinguals. Measures of non-verbal reasoning and working memory
were administered in English. Results indicated that vocabulary and morphological
awareness were direct predictors of RC across all models, suggesting these components
are universal aspects of RC. Indirect relationships between morphological awareness and
RC were mediated through vocabulary for all models. Interestingly, the patterns of
which measure of morphological awareness acted as a predictor of RC varied
systematically across languages, suggesting some language specific aspects between finer
grain morphological awareness skills and comprehension. An interesting interplay
between universal and language specific aspects of comprehension for diverse groups of
bilingual adolescents is discussed. The second study examined within- and cross-
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language predictors of RC among groups of Chinese-English bilinguals in different
language learning environments. Fifty seven bilinguals learning English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) in China, 60 recent immigrants, and 57 long-term immigrants to Canada
completed parallel measure of word-level reading, vocabulary and RC in Chinese and
English. Results demonstrated that patterns of within- and cross-language predictors of
comprehension varied across groups, and for L1 or L2 comprehension. L1 and L2 RC
was uniquely associated across languages for the EFL bilinguals and recent immigrants,
but was not related for the long-term immigrants. Furthermore, L1 vocabulary was
uniquely associated with L2 comprehension for the EFL bilinguals only. Finally, only
within-language vocabulary was related to RC, in either Chinese or English, for the long-
term immigrants. The results demonstrate overlap between L1 and L2 reading skills in
the early stages of L2 acquisition. The influence of the language learning environment
on changing patterns of within- and cross-language relationships is discussed.
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Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to thank my wonderful family for their love and support
over the years. To my wife, Courtney, you are my best friend and soul mate. You have always
shown me immense support, encouragement, and helped me enjoy life to the fullest. I know
together we can accomplish anything. To Eve, my beautiful daughter, you have brought so much
joy and happiness into my life. Your smile and laughter are sources of inspiration and
motivation. I am excited to watch you grow and experience all of life’s pleasures with you.
Thank you for making my life so rich and full of joy. To my Mom, Dad and brother, Anton, you
have given me so much support and helped me grow into the person I am today. I am thankful
for all your love, help, and a lifetime of great memories. I love you all more than words can
express.
I would also like to thank my advisor, Becky Chen-Bumgardner. You have given me
amazing opportunities and helped me grow as a researcher and scholar. My current and future
success is due to the effort, time, and hard work you have put in to help me develop and perfect
my skills. Most importantly, your friendship has made working with you an absolute pleasure. I
am so grateful to have met you and to be able to continue to collaborate. To my past advisor and
mentor, Alexandra Gottardo, you have been a constant source of support and motivation to help
me excel as a scholar but also as a person. You prepared me to be an independent researcher,
instilled a love for literacy, and the knowledge about how to help people through my passion. I
will be forever grateful for everything you have done, and continue to do, for me. To Esther
Geva, another excellent mentor, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to get to know you
and to gain the valuable experience of collaborating with you. You have helped me create many
important opportunities that have greatly expanded the depth and breadth of my research skills
and potential. Most importantly, all my mentors have instilled the confidence to explore new
and exciting ideas.
Additionally, there were a number of fantastic collaborators who were instrumental in the
development and execution of my dissertation research. Jie Zhang, Vedran Dronjic, Gloria
Ramirez, Karen Ay-Yueng, and Jin Xue, I owe all of you a great deal of thanks and admiration
for your support throughout the project in terms of measurement development, logistics, and data
collection. You were all a fantastic team to work with. Most importantly, thanks for being a
sounding board and providing excellent advice to help refine and specify the goals and intentions
of my dissertation research. Without you, I would not have been able to complete such an
intricate and multi-facetted study.
There were also a number of graduate and undergraduate students who helped with
recruitment, data collection, and data entry. A lot of hard work was done by an excellent group
of immerging scholars. I am very grateful for your help throughout the project. Furthermore, I
give thanks to all the schools in the Toronto Catholic District School board and the Toronto
District School Board for helping me promote the project and providing resources to complete it.
Finally, thank you to all the participants who devoted many hours to complete the study. There
was a coordinated effort among many people to complete my dissertation research, and I am
incredibly thankful to everyone who helped me accomplish a major life goal.

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Table of Contents
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………. ii
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………... iv
Lists of Tables...…………………………………………………………………………..….. ix
Lists of Figures.………………………………………………………………………………. x

Chapter 1: Introduction……………….…………………………………………………….… 1
Chapter 2: Study 1 - Models of RC in Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilinguals:
Universal and Language Specific Aspects of Comprehension in the L1 and L2.... 4
Theoretical Models of RC ……..…….……………………………..……………. 5
Typological characteristics of English, Spanish, and Chinese….……………..…. 7
Orthography and phonology………………………………………………….. 7
Morphology…………………………………………………………………... 8
Syntax……………………………..………………………………………….. 9
Oral Language Proficiency and RC………………………………………………. 10
Vocabulary……………………………………………………………………. 10
Morphological Awareness……………………………………………………. 12
Syntactic Awareness………………………………………………………….. 16
Objectives……..………………….………………………………………………. 20
Chapter 3: Method..……………………………………………………….………………….. 21
Participants..………….…………………………………….………………... 21
Procedures…………...…………………………………….………………… 22
Measures…………………………………………………………………….. 23
RC..…….……………..…….…………………………………………... 23
Vocabulary……………………………………………………………… 23
Morphological awareness……………….………..…………………….. 24
Compound awareness……………………………………..………... 24
Derivational awareness……………………………..………………. 25
Derivational production………………………………………… 25
Derivational structure………………………………………....... 25
Chinese homographic awareness………………...………………... 25
Syntactic awareness……………………..……………………………… 26
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Word reading and decoding………...…………………………………... 27
Nonverbal reasoning…………………..……………………………….. 28
Working memory……………………………………………………..... 28
Demographic questionnaire…………………………………………...... 29
Measurement comparability across languages………………………………. 29
Chapter 4: Results..……………………….……………………………………………..……. 30
Mean scores and group differences……..…………………………………… 30
Correlations…………………………………………………………….……. 31
Specification of Structural Models across Languages…………………....…. 32
Structural Equation Models in English.……………………………….. 35
Structural Equation Models in the L1……………………….………… 37
Chapter 5: Discussion………………………………………...………………………………. 40
The Universal Importance of Vocabulary and Morphological Awareness
for Comprehension.…………………………………………………………. 41
Language Specific Influences on Comprehension and Vocabulary………… 45
Limitations and Future Directions…………………………………………… 48
Conclusion and Implications………….…………………….……………….. 49
Chapter 6: Study 2 - Cross-language Relationships of L1 and L2 RC: A Cross-cultural
Comparison of Learning to Read in Canada and China……………………….…. 52
Defining Different Language Learning Environments……………………… 53
Cross-language Relationships between L1 and L2 Reading Skills...……….. 53
Within- and Cross-language Relationships of Word-level Reading…….…... 54
Within- and Cross-language Relationships of Vocabulary…...……………... 57
Cross-language Relationships of RC……………………............................... 58
Objectives..…………………………………………………………….......... 60
Chapter 7: Method….………………………………………………………………………… 61
Participants...………………………………………………………………....... 61
Measures……...………………….……………………………………………. 63
RC……..………………………………………………………………. 63
Vocabulary…………………………………………………………….. 63
Word-level reading…………………………………………………….. 64
Demographic questionnaire…………………………………………… 64
Procedures……………………………….……………………………….…… 64
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Chapter 8: Results………………………………………………………………………..…… 66
Descriptive Statistics and Group Differences….……………………………… 66
Correlations……………………………………....……………………………. 67
Hierarchical Linear Regressions and Commonalities Analyses………………. 68
Chapter 9: Discussion.………………………………………………………………………... 74
The Role of Word-level Reading Within and Across languages..…….………. 76
The Role of Vocabulary Within and Across Languages………………………. 78
The Role of RC Across Languages…………………………….…………….... 79
Conditions that Support Cross-language Relationships...……………………... 81
Limitations and Future Directions………………..……………………….…… 81
Implications………………………………………………………………….… 83
Chapter 10: General Conclusions…………………………………………………………….. 85

References……………………………………………………………………………………. 87

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Lists of Tables

Table 1. Descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance of age, length of residence,
English and L1 variables.....…………………………………………………..……. 102
Table 2. Intercorrelations among English variables for Chinese-English bilinguals and
Spanish-English bilinguals……………………………………………..…………... 103
Table 3. Intercorrelations among Spanish and control measures…………………………….. 104
Table 4. Intercorrelations among Chinese and control measures…………………………….. 105
Table 5. Coefficients for structural equation model of English RC………………………….. 107
Table 6. Coefficients of bootstrapping for indirect effects on English RC.………………….. 108
Table 7. Comparison of fit statistics by constraining parameter estimates to be equal across
groups……………………………………………………………….………..…….. 109
Table 8. Coefficients for structural equation model of first language RC……...……………. 111
Table 9. Coefficients of bootstrapping for indirect effects L1 RC…………………………… 112
Table 10. Descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance for Chinese EFL learners, Recent
Immigrants, and Long-term Immigrants for age, months in Canada, English and
Chinese variables…..………………..………....………………………………….. 115
Table 11. Intercorrelations among Chinese and English variables separated by group..…….. 116
Table 12. Hierarchical linear regression predicting English RC, separate for EFL, Recent
Immigrant, and Long-term Immigrant groups..………………………………….. 117
Table 13. Hierarchical linear regression predicting Chinese RC, separate for EFL, Recent
Immigrant, and Long-term Immigrant groups……………….…………………….. 118
Table 14. Commonality analyses beta weights, structural coefficients, proportions of total,
common and unique variance for EFL, Recent Immigrant and Long-term
Immigrant groups when predicting English RC…….……………………………… 119
Table 15. Summary of unique and common variance for independent variables when
predicting English RC...…………..……………………….……………………….. 120
Table 16. Commonality analyses beta weights, structural coefficients, proportions of total,
common and unique variance for EFL, Recent Immigrant and Long-term
Immigrant groups when predicting Chinese RC………………………………….... 121
Table 17. Summary of unique and common variance for independent variables when
predicting L1 RC….……………………………………………..….……………… 122
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Lists of Figures

Figure 1. Theoretical structural equation model of RC in English, Spanish and Chinese…… 106
Figure 2. Structural models of English RC showing direct and indirect effects…...………… 110
Figure 3. Structural model for Spanish RC (Model 3) showing direct and indirect effects….. 113
Figure 4. Structural model for Chinese RC (Model 4) showing direct and indirect effects …. 114
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