$7 million grant clears way for creation of national center for English language learners
A team of researchers from the Vaughn Gross Center and five other institutions across the country has won federal funding to ease the unique — and largely misunderstood — challenges faced by English language learners in grades 4 through 8.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences has awarded more than $7 million in a five-year grant to establish the National Research and Development Center on English Language Learners, which will bring scientific research and expertise to strengthen an anemic knowledge base for a skyrocketing student population.
“This just hasn’t been done at this level,” said Sylvia Linan-Thompson, a Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts researcher who will serve as associate director of the project. “We’re looking forward to making a contribution to the field, and we’ve put together a great team.”
That team includes eight other principal investigators:
- Sharon Vaughn, director of the Vaughn Gross Center, which will receive about $1.9 million of the grant total.
- David Francis, project director, and Coleen Carlson of The University of Houston.
- Catherine Snow of Harvard University.
- Elfrieda Hiebert of The University of California - Berkeley.
- Diane August and Debbie Short of the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC.
- Jana Echevarria of California State University at Long Beach.
The need for the work is clear — and increasing.
According to federal statistics, 4.5 million English language learners currently are enrolled in U.S. public schools, an increase of more than 30 percent over the 1997-1998 school year. Yet several studies have revealed that as a group, English language learners do not excel academically. In their winning grant proposal, the researchers point out that for the 2001-2002 school year, only 18.7 percent of English language learners met state reading comprehension norms in the 41 states that report such statistics.
The researchers trace the reasons for the gap between English language learners and their peers to several educational failures, including teacher preparation that does not match student needs. When teachers are not armed with appropriate instructional knowledge or do not possess alternate language proficiency, English language learners must struggle through conceptually advanced texts in a language they have not yet mastered — with too few or ineffective adaptations made.
Once they fall behind, they rarely catch up.
“The reality is that in most states, the instruction for older English language learners is delivered completely in English,” Linan-Thompson said.
The researchers will focus on vocabulary and comprehension strategy instruction using science and social studies text for English language learners in grades 4 through 8. Beginning this fall, the team will develop and test varying interventions in Texas and Maryland schools, disseminate the findings, and provide professional development training for teachers in the methods proven to be effective.
Specifically, the goals of the study are to:
- Integrate vocabulary and English as a second language strategies into interventions to enhance comprehension strategy instruction.
- Determine the added value of strategies for English as a second language instruction and of vocabulary enhancement in the Teacher Directed Strategy Instruction intervention.
- Examine the efficacy of two interventions that vary in the method of delivery.
- Identify and describe the response to the interventions by students with differing levels of English proficiency.
The team wants to close the gap between English language learners and their peers in academic achievement, but to do so, they first must close the gap in research.
“Let’s systematically study the variables that we think affect learning with English language learners; let’s determine their effect,” Linan-Thompson said. “This work can have a great impact.”