The effect of strategy instruction on bilingual st

TheEffectofStrategyInstructiononBilingualStudents’CognitiveStrategyUseinReadingYolandaN.PadrónAssociateProfessorUniversityofHouston-ClearLakeAbstractTherehasbeenagreatdealofemphasisontheteachingofthinkingskills.Formanysecondlanguagelearners,however,instructionintheuseofcognitivestrategyisalmostnonexistent.Researchidentifyingcognitivereadingstrategiesusedbysecondlanguagelearnershasrevealedavarietyofstrategiesthatstudentsusetocomprehendtext.Theidentificationofcognitivereadingstrategieshascontributedtothedevelopmentofinstructionalprogramswhichteachstudentstousethesestrategies.Thepresentstudyinvestigatedtheextenttowhichtwoinstructionalapproaches(i.e.,Question-AnswerRelationshipsandReciprocalTeaching)enhanceHispanicbilingualstudentsuseofcognitivereadingstrategies.Theresultsindicateddifferencesintheuseofcognitivereadingstrategiesbygradeandtreatmentgroup.IntroductionTheidentificationofcognitivereadingstrategieshascontributedtothedevelopmentofinstructionalprogramsthatteachstudentshowtousethesestrategiesinordertoincreasereadingcomprehension(Palinscar&Brown,1984,1985;Wittrock,1991).Inreading,forexample,trainingapproacheshavehelpedreadersbecomemoreawareofthestrategiestheyusesothattheycandevelopgreaterself-controlwhilereading(Brown,Campione&Day,1981;Haller,Child&Walberg,1988;Paris,Wixson&Palinscar,1986;Weinstein&Mayer,1986).Strategytraininghasincluded:(a)skillstraininginusingspecificstrategies,(b)trainingaboutthesignificanceofthosestrategiesandtheirusefulness,and(c)self-regulatingtheuseofstrategies(Baker&Brown,1984;Brown,Campione&Day,1981).Forinstruction,theteachingofcomprehension-fosteringskillssuggeststhatreadingcomprehensionmaybeenhancedthroughinstructionofstrategies(Forrest-Pressley&Gillies,1983;Heller&Gordon,1992;Palinscar&Brown,1984,36BilingualResearchJournal,16:3&4,Summer/Fall19921985)byprovidingstudentswithbetterawarenessandself-controlofthereadingtask(Paris,Wixson&Palinscar,1986).Studiesonstrategytraininghavefoundthatwhenstrategiesaremodeledforstudentsandwhenstudentshaveanopportunitytopracticethestrategy,theirreadingcomprehensionimproves(Palinscar&Brown,1984,1985;Saracho,1983;Wittrock,1991).Researchinthisareahasalsofoundthatthereareindividualdifferencesontheuseofcognitivereadingstrategies.Maturereaders(Palinscar&Brown,1984)andfemalestudents(Knight&Padrón,1986),forexample,aremorelikelytouseavarietyofcognitivestrategies.Furthermore,someresearchhasbeenconductedinexaminingthestrategiesusedinreadingbybilingualstudentswhilereadingintheirsecondlanguage(Block,1986;Padrón,Knight&Waxman,1986;Padrón&Waxman,1988).Padrón,Knight,andWaxman(1986)foundthatbilingualstudentsusefewerstrategiesanddifferenttypesofreadingstrategiesthanEnglish-monolingualstudents.Littleresearch,however,hasbeenconductedthatexaminestheeffectsofcognitivestrategyinstructiononthestrategiesthatbilingualstudentsuseinreadingtextthatiswrittenintheirsecondlanguage.Apossibleexplanationfordifferencesintheacademicachievementbetweenhigh-andlow-achievingstudentsmaybethatlower-achievingstudentsareoftenbeingdeniedtheopportunitytolearnhigher-levelthinkingskills(Coley&Hoffman,1990;Farr,1986;Foster,1989;Moll,1986;Waxman,Padrón&Knight,1991;Stein,Leinhardt&Bickel,1989).Readinginstructionforat-riskmiddle-andupper-gradestudents,forexample,hasbeenfoundnottofocusoncomprehension(Brown,Palinscar&Purcell,1986).Thelackofexposuretohigher-levelthinkingskillsmaybeduetotheassumptionthatstudentsmustdemonstratetheabilitytolearnthebasicorlowerlevelsofknowledgebeforetheycanbetaughthigher-levelskills(Foster,1989;Stein,Leinhardt&Bickell,1989).InthecaseoflimitedEnglishproficient(LEP)students,higher-levelthinkingskillsaregenerallynottaughtuntilthestudenthasmasteredEnglishfullybecausemanyteachersassumethatstudentsarenotabletocomprehenduntiltheycanspeakthelanguagewell(Garcia&Pearson,1991).ThisexplanationmayaccountforthereasonwhyLEPHispanicstudentshavebeenfoundnottousethesametypeofreadingstrategiesnorasmanyreadingstrategiesasotherhigher-achievingHispanicstudents(Padrón,Knight&Waxman,1986).TheEffectofStrategyInstructiononBilingualStudents'37Althoughstudiescontinuetofindthatstrategyinstructionhasbeneficialeffectsonstudentoutcomes(e.g.,Padrón,1992;Pressley,1990),fewstudieshaveinvestigatedtheuseofthisprocedurewithculturallyandlinguisticallydifferentstudents(Padrón,1990;Waxman,Padrón&Knight,1991).ThepresentstudyexaminestheextenttowhichinstructionincognitivereadingstrategiesenhancesHispanicbilingualstudents’useofcognitivereadingstrategies.Morespecifically,thisstudyinvestigatestheeffectoftwotypesofstrategyinstructionalapproachesonbilingualstudents’cognitivestrategyuseinreadingEnglishasasecondlanguage.Thetwostrategyapproachesusedinthepresentstudyare:(a)ReciprocalTeaching(Palinscar&Brown,1984)and(b)Question-AnswerRelationships(Raphael,Winograd&Pearson,1980).Bothoftheseinstructionalapproacheshavebeenfoundtobeeffectiveinimprovingstudents’readingcomprehension,buttheyhavebeenrarelyusedwithLEPstudents.ReciprocalTeachingisoneofthemostfrequentlycitedapproachestocognitivestrategyinstruction.Theproceduretakespla