W6 Reading

In their paper Effectiveness of Four Instructional Programs Designed to Serve EnglishLearners: Variation by Ethnicity and Initial English Proficiency, Valentino and Reardon investigated the differences in academic outcome of English learner (EL) students in four different instructional programs: English Immersion (EI), Transitional Bilingual (TB), Developmental Bilingual (DB), and Dual Immersion (DI) and concluded that “the English Language Arts test scores of ELs in all bilingual programs grow at least as fast as, if not faster than, those in EI.

According to the article, English Immersion program is a program all of whose courses are instructed in English only. Transitional bilingual uses 50% target language at first and quickly increase the proportion of time spent in English as the learner. Developmental bilingual program starts with 50% English use at first as well and increase the proportion each year depending on students’ needs. The difference between TB and DB is that the former increase target language as quickly as possible to help their students develop English proficiency with the aid of their mother language while the latter increase the proportion gradually in order to help their students develop English competency while maintaining native language proficiency. Finally, dual immersion program mixes ELs with English-only students together so that all students can be fluent in both languages.

The paper is to address two research questions: (1) what are the differential effects of four EL instructional programs on EL’s academic achievement in English Language Arts and math through middle school? (2) Do these academic growth trajectories by program vary by the ethnicity or initial English proficiency of the EL students?

Observing the students through at least their third grade and analyzing the data, the paper concludes that in DB program, students’ average scores grow more slowly than the other three but there is no big difference both in English Language Art and math among students in EI, TB, and DI programs.

As to the second question, the paper finds out that Latino ELs perform better in both subjects than their Chinese counterpart.

The paper analyzed the data with many mathematic tools which stop me many times because I am rusty about it. Also, when analyzing the result, the paper tested the null hypothesis. The null hypothesis was mentioned in the article I read last week which is about how to remain creativity in science. One of the suggestions is not to employ null hypothesis which assumes no relationship between the findings and results in the beginning when you just come up with a novel idea. In the paper, the null hypothesis is used in the late stage when the researchers are analyzing the data so it is a right timing to use it because it could keep the researcher being objective.


Finally, the paper demythologizes immersion program and I especially appreciate its attitude of emphasizing the importance of EL’s mother language.

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