LEARNING TO READ AND WRITE IN ENGLISH: CASE STUDIES OF TWO SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDENTS IN A NORTHWEST URBAN HIGH SCHOOL (ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL))
Author(s):
Terdal, Marjorie S.
Format:
Thesis
Degree granted:
Ph.D.
Publisher:
Ann Arbor : University of Oregon, 1985.
Pages:
273
Language:
English
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine what high school students from different Southeast Asian backgrounds know and are learning about reading and writing. The research was conducted throughout the 1984-85 school year in two English as a Second Language reading/writing classrooms at a Northwest urban high school. A case study approach was used, focusing on two students, a Vietnamese female and a Hmong male. The total context of their use of written language was examined: their orientation to literacy in their first language before coming to the United States, their use of written language in their home/community and in school, and their stage of developing literate skills in English. The study also examined the ways in which these students responded to the whole language approach to instruction in written language of one ESL teacher. Reading and writing events in the ESL classroom were analyzed as part of the total context in which students were learning to read and write in English. To examine this context, a combined qualitative and quantitative approach was used for collecting and analyzing data. The following methods were employed: observation in the role of privileged observer in ESL classes and other classes in which ESL students were enrolled; analysis of learner interaction using FOCUS, an interaction analysis scheme designed for second language classrooms; miscue analyses of students' reading in both their first language and English; analyses of errors, syntax, and content of students' writing in both their first language and English; and interviews with ESL students, teachers, and Southeast Asian refugees. The study points out some connections between reading and writing theory for second language learners and application of that theory in an ESL classroom. It also highlights some misconnections between the events in the classroom and the teacher's perceptions of those events and between the approach used by the teacher and the needs and expectations of the students.