READING STRATEGIES OF BILITERATE CHILDREN FOR ENGLISH AND SPANISH TEXTS

Abstract

This study examined strategy use of biliterate third and fourth grade readers reading in Spanish and in English. Students read two stories, one in each language, presented one sentence at a time on a computer which automatically recorded their reading times. After reading, students reported the strategies they had used first in an interview and then on a checklist. Finally, comprehension was measured via retellings and multiple choice questions. Testing sessions in the two languages were conducted one week apart. Analyses revealed that students tended to report the same number of strategies whether reading in Spanish or English. Correlational analyses revealed that they tended to use the same types of strategies in the two languages. Reading times and gist recall on the retellings did not differ for the two languages, although students did answer more multiple choice questions correctly for the English stories. Reported strategy use was shown to be related to comprehension in both languages. The study demonstrates that bilingual students can successfully transfer reading strategies between languages.