Monolingual and Bilingual Reading Comprehension in Middle and High School Students

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Poor reading comprehension, a significant problem in the U.S., results in reduced employment opportunities, a greater likelihood of living in poverty, higher hospitalization rates, and poor health outcomes through poor health literacy (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2011). Bilingual students in our nation are at higher risk for poor reading comprehension than their monolingual peers, increasing these negative consequences. The long-term goal of the proposed studies is to examine the structure of reading comprehension in middle and high school students and to determine which cognitive and linguistic factors contribute to reading comprehension outcomes. We will build upon previous longitudinal work conducted by the Language and Reading Research Consortium (LARRC) and Monolingual and Bilingual Reading Comprehension (MBRC) research group to study monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual students who were initially assessed in preschool, and follow them through 8th and 10th grades. We will also recruit a new group of 10th grade monolingual English and Spanish-English bilingual students for cross-sectional studies to address the following specific aims: (1) Determine the factor structure of reading comprehension in 10th grade to assess whether a single-factor model is sufficient or whether additional factors are required to take into account text type (narrative or expository) and measurement type (processing versus product); (2) Determine whether reading comprehension in 8th or 10th grade is predicted by language and cognitive skills in 3rd grade; and (3) Determine whether findings for Specific Aim 1 and 2 differ for children who entered preschool speaking Spanish and children who entered preschool speaking English. This project is innovative in several ways. First, we extend our longitudinal reading research from preschool through middle and high school, grades which are understudied in reading development. We will build on recent advances in our understanding of the factor structure and predictors of reading comprehension by including measures of both the product of comprehension and ease of processing text, integration of information within single texts and across multiple texts, and consider the role of cognitive factors such as memory, executive function, and psychological factors such as motivation in reading comprehension. Second, we include two groups of students, English and Spanish-English bilinguals in our studies. Results will provide a sound basis for the development and testing of reading comprehension assessment, instruction, and intervention for older students and bilingual students.