The effect of early enrollment in dual-language immersion programs on children’s English reading development: findings from a 5-year longitudinal study

Date
2022-05-30
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
Abstract
The present study examined the effect of children’s enrollment in U.S. dual-language immersion (DLI) programs in first grade on English development across five years, using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2011 (ECLS-K:2011) database. Propensity score matching was used to create comparable groups of DLI and non-DLI students based on students’ kindergarten reading performance and a series of student-, family-, and school-level characteristics. Growth curve models demonstrate that first-grade DLI enrollment had a positive effect on children’s English reading growth from Grade 1 to 5. Children who enrolled in DLI experienced greater improvements by Grade 5. We also found that first-grade teacher judgment was related to children’s initial reading performance but not their reading growth. Implications related to DLI programs, teacher practices, and bilingual educational policies are discussed.
Description
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism on 05/30/2022, available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13670050.2022.2079373. This article will be embargoed until 11/30/2023.
Keywords
Dual-language immersion, reading achievement, growth curve model, propensity score matching, teacher judgment
Citation
Ye Shen, Rui Wang, Fan Zhang, Christina Areizaga Barbieri & Adrian Pasquarella (2022) The effect of early enrollment in dual-language immersion programs on children’s English reading development: findings from a 5-year longitudinal study, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2022.2079373