Dissertation Defense: An Investigation of the Cognitive, Linguistic, and Affective Factors that Impact English Language Learners’ Performance on a State Standardized Reading Achievement Test
ED 306 November 5, 2009
12:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Announcing the Final Examination of Ms. Carine S. Strebel Halpern for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
This mixed-method study investigated linguistic, cognitive, as well as affective factors that impact adolescent English language learners’ (ELL) performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
The quantitative portion examined the relative contributions of second language proficiency and reading comprehension strategies to a prediction model of reading achievement in 110 ninth and tenth grade ELLs. The qualitative portion of the study involved individual
interviews and was aimed at deepening the understanding of ELLs’ use of strategies during the standardized reading test, while also investigating affective factors that may impact their performance on this measure of academic achievement.
Quantitative findings include two statistically significant prediction models of reading achievement with reading comprehension strategies and English language proficiency as predictor variables. However, only language proficiency made a significant unique contribution to the prediction variable. Qualitative findings suggest that the participants
had relatively little metacognitive awareness of their comprehension during the standardized test, had overestimated their use of reading strategies as reported on a 30-item strategy survey instrument, and may have been hindered by testing anxiety in being able to wholly
concentrate on the task.
Recommendations made for the instruction of comprehension strategies include the raising of metacognitive awareness through the explicit modeling of the thought processes involved in reading comprehension, including determining the meaning of unknown words.
Graduate Students
Dissertation Defense: An Investigation of the Cognitive, Linguistic, and Affective Factors that Impact English Language Learners’ Performance on a State Standardized Reading Achievement Test
