Thinking Maps for ESL Reading Comprehension Enhancement

Introduction: The Achievement Gap for English Language Learners

The academic achievement gap between linguistic minority groups and other students is a persistent problem for the American public school system (Thernstrom & Thernstrom, 2003). The pattern of underachievement and high school dropout rates among Hispanic/Latino students within immigrant groups is particularly pronounced (Wong Fillmore & Meyer, 1992). Of the school-aged English Language Learner (ELL) population, 73% come from Spanish-language backgrounds (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002), and their reading test results are of particular concern, as literacy skills are the building blocks for academic achievement. The gap between the test scores of Hispanic/Latino students and white students is a well-documented phenomenon, existing throughout grades K–12 in both reading and mathematics (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2003).

According to the NCES (2000), 44% of foreign-born Hispanics fail to complete high school, compared to a much lower 15% of those born in the United States. Hispanics lag behind their white and Asian-American peers in both reading and math (NCES, 1992, 2007). Using average scale scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress — known colloquially as "the nation's report card" — the gap in reading and math stands at 25–27 points. A review of comparable results from 1992 shows a similarly substantial gap of 26 points, indicating that the gap has not closed over time. According to the report, this holds true in both the fourth and eighth grades.

The difficulty in acquiring academic English — the form of English needed for testing — appears to be a principal cause of this deficit (August & Hakuta, 2005; August & Shanahan, 2006; Bielenberg & Wong Fillmore, 2004; Cummins, 1979, 1986; Wong Fillmore & Meyer, 1992). In 2003, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that 79% of English Language Learners came from Spanish-speaking homes.

The applicability to this study of Cummins' (1979, 2004) well-known and widely accepted distinction between BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills) — associated with conversational communication — and CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) — skills such as reading and writing, which take much longer to develop — lies in understanding that the comfortable, everyday fluency Latino/a students display in conversational English often masks their rudimentary skills in reading and writing.

The key for a learner is to master "communicative competence" in a language (Hymes, 1974). This involves not only language knowledge and properly constructed sentences, but also the ability to use the language in context — what linguists refer to as semantics and pragmatics. Literacy for ELLs is complex (Gonzales, 1986). Elements that constitute the framework of this complexity include socio-cultural factors, linguistic factors, and classroom instruction. One needs only to consider the difficulty of simultaneously learning to read, write, and speak a foreign language — particularly one where the sounds do not always correspond to spellings on the page — while absorbing a new culture, to appreciate that this is a daunting task. The research literature further shows that reading success is limited by second-language vocabulary development (Garcia & Jensen, 2007; Gottardo, 2002; Proctor et al., 2005), and that vocabulary building depends, in turn, on reading.

While a strong body of literary research exists, there is also a need for additional research into reading comprehension — specifically regarding effective strategies for ELL students. This paper explores the use of Thinking Maps® to enhance comprehension for ESL learners.

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