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This study examined how parental expectations were associated with Chinese-Norwegian dual language learners' Chinese language skills. A total of 118 Chinese parents in Norway completed a questionnaire in which they reported their expectations for their children's Chinese language development, characteristics of the home literacy environment (resources and practices), and children's Chinese language skills. The children were ages 1;6-14;0 (M = 6;2, SD = 2;6) and spoke Chinese at home while learning Norwegian in preschool and school. We found that parental expectations positively linked to parent-reported Chinese language skills. Moreover, this link was partially a factor of children's Chinese home literacy environment. The results suggest that parents who manifested their expectations by facilitating a rich home literacy environment (i.e., children's books and activities like shared reading, storytelling, listening to songs, online chatting with Chinese relatives, and playing with Chinese friends) supported their children's Chinese language skills. By documenting parents' efforts and their association with improved language outcomes, this study adds nuance to our understanding of the high expectations set by Chinese immigrant parents, and provides implications for parents, teachers, and researchers.

General academic words are those which are typically learned through exposure to school texts and occur across disciplines. We examined academic vocabulary assessment data from a group of English-speaking middle school students (N = 1,747). We tested how word frequency, complexity, proximity, polysemy, and diversity related to students' knowledge of target words across ability levels. Our results affirm the strong relation between vocabulary and reading at the individual level. Strong readers were more likely to know the meanings of words than struggling readers were, regardless of the features of the academic words tested. Words with more meanings were easier for all students, on average. The relation between word frequency and item difficulty was stronger among better readers, whereas the relation between word complexity and item difficulty was stronger among less proficient readers. Our examination of academic words' characteristics and how these characteristics relate to word difficulty across reading performance has implications for instruction.

This paper examines the relation between children's summer activities before fourth through sixth grade and their vocabulary knowledge in fifth grade and at age fifteen using the NICHD SECCYD dataset (N = 1,009). We used OLS regression and propensity score analyses to understand how children's summer reading, library visits, participation in enrichment classes, and unsupervised time predicts their vocabulary knowledge. Propensity score matching and OLS analyses show that time spent reading predicts vocabulary during the following two years, and high levels of time allocated to reading across three or more summers in middle childhood predicts vocabulary knowledge at age 15. OLS analyses suggest a relationship between library visits and vocabulary knowledge. There is no short-term relationship between enrichment classes and vocabulary knowledge, although our OLS analysis demonstrated that consistent enrollment in summer enrichment classes over three years predicted improved vocabulary. Unsupervised time predicted poor vocabulary in both the short and long-term.

The Common Core State Standards (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010) feature argumentative writing across the curriculum in grades 4 through 12, yet little is known about how young adolescents develop the challenging advanced language and literacy skills needed for these tasks. This study explored productive academic language use in the persuasive writing of a sample of 40 middle school students (grades 6-8) by examining the use of (1) argumentative moves that display various levels of sophistication and (2) major classes of connectives (additive, adversative, causal, and temporal) that signal different cohesive functions within a text. Essays in our analytical sample (n = 158) were produced in the context of an academic vocabulary curriculum, Word Generation, and were transcribed, coded, and analyzed for types of arguments by researchers and undergraduate research assistants. Subsequently, connectives were calculated by the Tool for the Automated Analysis of Cohesion (TAACO; Crossley, Kyle, & McNamara, 2016). Descriptive analyses reveal that the sixth--eighth grade students in our sample deployed complex reasoning in their essays; at least one dual perspective argument was present in 50% of the essays, and at least one integrative perspective argument was present in 42% of the essays. Multivariate regression analyses (with adjusted standard errors) reveal that adversative connectives (e.g., "although, however") were related to the most complex arguments (integrative perspective), controlling for essay length and topic type (ß = 20.13, p = 0.006), as well as to overall argument sophistication (ß = 17.25, p = 0.02). The results show the value of brief, curriculum-based essays for assessing students' argumentation skills.

While it is established that parental wh -questions, as a high-quality language input, are associated with child language outcome, less is known about the role of children's wh -questions in their language development. This study examines whether children's wh -questions during a dinnertime conversation are associated with their receptive and expressive language skills. The sample consists of a unique group of bilingual children: 32 Chinese preschoolers (aged 3–5 years) in Norway. At the onset of the study, parents self-recorded a dinnertime conversation with the target child and other family members present. Over the following year, we assessed children's receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and narrative skills in Chinese three times. Individual growth modeling revealed that concurrently, the density of children's wh -questions was associated with children's expressive vocabulary and narrative skills, but the association faded when controlling for family demographics. Significantly, even when accounting for all control variables, children's wh -questions predicted their receptive vocabulary growth across one year. These findings underline children's active role in shaping their language learning and development. This study also contributes to our understanding of bilingual children's home language development. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many aspects of words that can influence our lexical processing, and the words we are exposed to influence our opportunities for language and reading development. The purpose of this study is to establish a more comprehensive understanding of the lexical challenges and opportunities students face. We explore the latent relationships of word features across three established word lists: the General Service List, Academic Word List, and discipline-specific word lists from the Academic Vocabulary List. We fit exploratory factor models using 22 non-behavioral, empirical measures to three sets of vocabulary words: 2,060 high-frequency words, 1,051 general academic words, and 3,413 domain-specific words. We found Frequency, Complexity, Proximity, Polysemy, and Diversity were largely stable factors across the sets of high-frequency and general academic words, but that the challenge facing learners is structurally different for domain-specific words. Despite substantial stability, there are important differences in the latent lexical features that learners encounter. We discuss these results and provide our latent factor estimates for words in our sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the impact of a relatively brief cross-curricular intervention, Word Generation, on middle school students' development of taught academic vocabulary. Students (n = 8382) in forty-four middle schools in three urban districts were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Treatment teachers implemented the program with minimal support and varying levels of commitment. Students in treatment schools scored almost a point higher on the curriculum-based vocabulary posttests than those in control schools (Hedges's g = 0.094, p < 0.05). Though there was no main treatment effect on the standardized measures of students' general vocabulary knowledge or reading comprehension, baseline-by-treatment interactions at the school and student level acted to attenuate the Matthew Effect in reading and vocabulary growth.

Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one's discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions to community-based problems. Freely available to schools, "Word Generation" is a cross-content literacy program that supports teachers in the four main content areas--ELA, social studies, science, and math--to embed learning of controversial issues through classroom discussions, subject-specific lessons, and writing. Middle school students (N = 5,870) from diverse backgrounds participated in a randomized study of the intervention that was conducted in 12 middle schools located in an urban school district. We analyzed survey data based on students' self-reported ratings on their communicative self-efficacy, as indicated by confidence to participate in discussions of 15 different controversial issues related to politics, society, and science. Paired sample t-tests indicate that treatment students reported higher communicative self-efficacy than control students on a set of topics immediately covered prior to testing, but not on the set of topics covered in the previous year. This study informs curriculum developers, policy makers, and educators to consider the importance of incorporating classroom discussions of controversial issues within a framework of subject-specific instruction.

Classroom discussion, despite its association with good academic outcomes, is exceedingly rare in U.S. schools. The Word Generation intervention involves the provision of texts and activities to be implemented across content area class, organized around engaging and discussable dilemmas. The program was evaluated with 1,554 middle grade students in 28 schools randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. There were large effects on classroom discussion quality across all content areas, especially in math and science (Cohen's d =?0.38-1.13). The program also produced significant, though small, effects on taught vocabulary (effect size?=?0.25, p

The Common Core State Standards emphasize the integration of technology skills into English Language Arts (ELA) instruction, recognizing the demand for technology-based literacy skills to be college- and career- ready. This study aims to examine how collaborative cloud-based writing is used in in a Colorado school district, where one-to-one computer access with netbooks and open source software is provided to all students. Specifically, this paper highlights how the middle school students' online writing align with the specific domains of the Common Core ELA Standards. Implications for practices are also discussed based on the challenges and affordances of using cloud-based collaborative writing in the district.

We tested whether urban middle-school students from mostly low-income homes had improved academic vocabulary when they participated in a freely available vocabulary program, Word Generation (WG). To understand how this program may support students at risk for long-term reading difficulty, we examined treatment interactions with baseline achievement on a state standardized test and also differential effects for students with (n = 398) and without (n = 1,395) individualized education plans (IEPs). Students in this unmatched quasi-experiment (5 WG and 4 comparison schools) completed pre- and postvocabulary assessments during the intervention year. We also retested student vocabulary knowledge after summer vacation and the following spring on 11 target words to construct a longitudinally consistent scaled score across 4 waves of data. Growth models show that students experienced summer setback. Although there were no average underlying differences in growth or differences in summer setback for students by baseline achievement, better readers improved more from program participation. IEP status did not predict differential benefits of program participation, and students with IEPs maintained gains associated with participation in WG; however, participation in the program did not change underlying growth trajectories favoring students who did not have IEPs.

This longitudinal quasi-experimental study examines the effects of Word Generation, a middle-school vocabulary intervention, on the learning, maintenance, and consolidation of academic vocabulary for students from English-speaking homes, proficient English speakers from language-minority homes, and limited English-proficiency students. Using individual growth modeling, we found that students receiving Word Generation improved more on target word knowledge during the instructional period than students in comparison schools did, on average. We found an interaction between instruction and home-language status such that English-proficient students from language-minority homes improved more than English-proficient students from English-speaking homes. Limited English-proficiency students, however, did not realize gains equivalent to those of more proficient students from language-minority homes during the instructional period. We administered follow-up assessments in the fall after the instructional period ended and in the spring of the following year to determine how well students maintained and consolidated target academic words. Students in the intervention group maintained their relative improvements at both follow-up assessments.

Students who struggle with reading comprehension in middle school often lack the academic vocabulary the need to understand grade-level textbooks and other instructional materials. Research shows that to learn a new word well, students need to encounter and use it multiple times in different contexts. The authors describe Word Generation, a whole-school vocabulary program that introduces students to academic words that commonly occur across content areas. Students are introduced to 5-7 words each week in the context of a high-interest reading passage about a controversial topic. They encounter these words and use them in topic-related learning activities in various academic classes throughout the week. Preliminary research in Boston Public Schools shows that Word Generation builds academic vocabulary, which translates into improved literacy. (Contains 6 online resources.)

A quasi-experimental study of a novel, cross-content area vocabulary intervention program called "Word Generation" showed significantly greater growth among 6th- to 8th-grade students in schools implementing the program than in comparison schools, on a curriculum-specific test. Furthermore, the language-minority students in the treatment, but not the comparison, schools showed greater growth than the English-only students. Improvement on the curriculum-specific test predicted performance on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) English language arts assessment, again only for students in the treatment schools. Recognizing the need to implement a more rigorous experimental study of this program, nonetheless we conclude that participation in the intervention, with its focus on deep reading, comprehension of current-events topics, productive classroom discussion, developing arguments, and producing persuasive essays, was a plausible contributor to student performance on the MCAS. (Contains 2 figures and 11 tables.)

This study examined how parental expectations were associated with Chinese-Norwegian dual language learners' Chinese language skills. A total of 118 Chinese parents in Norway completed a questionnaire in which they reported their expectations for their children's Chinese language development, characteristics of the home literacy environment (resources and practices), and children's Chinese language skills. The children were ages 1;6–14;0 (M = 6;2, SD = 2;6) and spoke Chinese at home while learning Norwegian in preschool and school. We found that parental expectations positively linked to parent-reported Chinese language skills. Moreover, this link was partially a factor of children's Chinese home literacy environment. The results suggest that parents who manifested their expectations by facilitating a rich home literacy environment (i.e., children's books and activities like shared reading, storytelling, listening to songs, online chatting with Chinese relatives, and playing with Chinese friends) supported their children's Chinese language skills. By documenting parents' efforts and their association with improved language outcomes, this study adds nuance to our understanding of the high expectations set by Chinese immigrant parents, and provides implications for parents, teachers, and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

General academic words are those which are typically learned through exposure to school texts and occur across disciplines. We examined academic vocabulary assessment data from a group of English‐speaking middle school students (N = 1,747). We tested how word frequency, complexity, proximity, polysemy, and diversity related to students' knowledge of target words across ability levels. Our results affirm the strong relation between vocabulary and reading at the individual level. Strong readers were more likely to know the meanings of words than struggling readers were, regardless of the features of the academic words tested. Words with more meanings were easier for all students, on average. The relation between word frequency and item difficulty was stronger among better readers, whereas the relation between word complexity and item difficulty was stronger among less proficient readers. Our examination of academic words' characteristics and how these characteristics relate to word difficulty across reading performance has implications for instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about whole-school, context-rich vocabulary instruction, which can help boost middle school students' reading comprehension, is provided. It is believed that the current vocabulary instruction for middle school is fragmented among content areas. Because of this, most middle school students find academic materials unengaging.

We investigate the impact of a relatively brief cross-curricular intervention, Word Generation, on middle school students' development of taught academic vocabulary. Students (n = 8382) in forty-four middle schools in three urban districts were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Treatment teachers implemented the program with minimal support and varying levels of commitment. Students in treatment schools scored almost a point higher on the curriculum-based vocabulary posttests than those in control schools (Hedges's g = 0.094, p < 0.05). Though there was no main treatment effect on the standardized measures of students' general vocabulary knowledge or reading comprehension, baselineby- treatment interactions at the school and student level acted to attenuate the Matthew Effect in reading and vocabulary growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to understand the reading performance of subgroups of language minority students and examine whether a research-based academic vocabulary intervention, Word Generation, has differential effects on these students’ academic vocabulary knowledge. Thirteen middle schools, propensity-score matched based on their achievement and demographic data, were randomly assigned to either treatment (n = 3,539) or control (n = 2,630) conditions. Students in both conditions were classified as either English-only (EO) or language minority students. The language minority students were further grouped as either being initially fluent English proficient (IFEP), redesignated fluent English proficient (RFEP), or limited English proficient (LEP). Multivariate analysis of variance and hierarchical linear models revealed three important findings. First, while LEP students’ scores on reading measures were significantly below those of the EO students, RFEP students’ scores were comparable to EO students’ scores. In addition, IFEP students’ scores were higher than those of the EO students. Second, there were variations within the RFEP students when they were disaggregated by time since redesignation; RFEP students’ reading scores were positively correlated with time since redesignation. Third, the treatment effect emerged only as an interaction with RFEP status. This study suggests that the benefits of a research-based intervention may vary according to students’ level of English proficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Common Core State Standards emphasize the integration of technology skills into English Language Arts (ELA) instruction, recognizing the demand for technology-based literacy skills to be college- and career- ready. This study aims to examine how collaborative cloud-based writing is used in in a Colorado school district, where one-to-one computer access with netbooks and open source software is provided to all students. Specifically, this paper highlights how the middle school students' online writing align with the specific domains of the Common Core ELA Standards. Implications for practices are also discussed based on the challenges and affordances of using cloud-based collaborative writing in the district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]