Date of Award
5-1-2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (Ded)
Department
Educational Leadership
First Advisor
Dr. John W. Hill
Second Advisor
Dr. Kay A. Keiser
Third Advisor
Dr. Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to compare the achievement, engagement, and English acquisition of students from the same urban elementary school who received instruction in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program from kindergarten through fourth-grade compared to the achievement, engagement, and English acquisition of students who received instruction in a Dual Language (DL) program from kindergarten through fourth-grade to determine the effectiveness of both programs that are aimed at helping English language learners (ELLs) acquire the English language. All Hispanic ELLs with the home and school correspondence language of Spanish were in attendance in the research urban district's elementary school kindergarten through fourth-grade and had the same bilingual principal. Third-grade pretest English Language Development Assessment (ELDA) scores compared to fourth-grade posttest ELDA scores of ELLs enrolled in the ESL program were in the direction of improved speaking (p < .001), reading (p <.001), writing (p <.01), and comprehension (p < .01) dependent t test scores. Null hypotheses were also rejected in the direction of improved listening (p < .001), reading (p <.01), writing (p <.05), and comprehension (p < .01) dependent t test scores for ELLs enrolled in the DL program. However, null hypotheses were not rejected for fourth-grade posttest-posttest ELDA scores comparisons of ELLs enrolled in the ESL program compared to ELLs enrolled in the DL program except for speaking, where ELLs enrolled in the ESL program had a statistically significant (p <.05) improvement compared to ELLs enrolled in the DL program. Third-grade pretest Nebraska State Accountability Assessment reading (NeSA-R) scores compared to fourth-grade posttest NeSA-R scores of ELLs enrolled in the ESL program were in the direction of improved reading (p <.01) dependent t test score. Null hypothesis was also rejected in the direction of improved fourth-grade posttest reading (p <.01) dependent t test score for ELLs enrolled in the DL program. However, null hypothesis was not rejected for the posttest-posttest NeSA-R scores comparisons between ELLs enrolled in the ESL program compared to ELLs enrolled in the DL program. Third-grade pretest school days absent compared to fourth-grade posttest school days absent of ELLs enrolled in the ESL program were in the direction of fewer days absent but not statistically significant. Third-grade pretest school days absent compared to fourth-grade posttest school days absent for ELLs in the DL program were also in the direction of fewer school days absent but not statistically significant. However, posttest-posttest independent t test comparisons of school days absent were statistically significant (p <.05) for ELLs enrolled in the DL program who had statistically significantly fewer school days absent in the fourth-grade compared to ELLs in the ESL program. Finally, all ELLs noticeably benefited from five years participation in the research district's urban elementary school's ESL or DL program, made statistically comparable gains from third-grade to fourth-grade, and were equally prepared for participation in the next school year's fifth-grade academic instruction.
Recommended Citation
Ortega, Rony E., "Achievement, engagement, and English language acquisition of fourth-grade ELL students following five years of instruction in an English as a Second Language program or instruction in a dual language program in the same urban elementary school" (2013). Student Work. 3490.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork/3490
Comments
A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the University of Nebraska in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education. Copyright 2013 Rony E. Ortega.