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Page 1: Literacy Motivation and School/Non-School Literacies Among Students Enrolled in a Middle-School ESOL Program

This article was downloaded by: [Le Moyne College]On: 17 October 2014, At: 22:39Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Literacy Research and InstructionPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ulri20

Literacy Motivation and School/Non-School Literacies Among StudentsEnrolled in a Middle-School ESOLProgramElizabeth G. Sturtevant a & Grace S. Kim aa George Mason University , Fairfax, VirginiaPublished online: 18 Dec 2009.

To cite this article: Elizabeth G. Sturtevant & Grace S. Kim (2009) Literacy Motivation and School/Non-School Literacies Among Students Enrolled in a Middle-School ESOL Program, Literacy Researchand Instruction, 49:1, 68-85, DOI: 10.1080/19388070802716907

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Page 2: Literacy Motivation and School/Non-School Literacies Among Students Enrolled in a Middle-School ESOL Program

Literacy Research and Instruction, 49: 68–85, 2010Copyright © Association of Literacy Educators and ResearchersISSN: 1938-8071 print / 1938-8063 onlineDOI: 10.1080/19388070802716907

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ULRI1938-80711938-8063Literacy Research and Instruction, Vol. 49, No. 1, Oct 2009: pp. 0–0Literacy Research and Instruction

Literacy Motivation and School/Non-School Literacies Among Students Enrolled in a Middle-School ESOL Program

Literacy Motivation and School/Non-School LiteraciesE. G. Sturtevant and G. Kim

ELIZABETH G. STURTEVANT AND GRACE S. KIM

George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia

This study examined literacy motivation among middle-school students in English for speakers ofother languages (ESOL) classes by using a 20-question survey and semi-structured interview. Thesurvey results identified similarities among students of different genders, but differences between thebeginning ESOL group and the more advanced groups, with the beginning group exhibiting highermotivation in the subsection of “valuing” of reading. Multiple linear regression with gender, ESOLgroup, and self-concept as reader predicted value of reading, with ESOL group having the highestprediction power. The eight students interviewed generally reported a strong interest in reading andwriting, particularly outside of school, and a wide array of literacy activities within the family inwhich the students were both learners and teachers.

Keywords English language learners, ESL, family literacy, literacy, middle school, motivation,reading attitude

Middle-school learners face many challenges. They are generally attending schools largerthan those they attended earlier in their lives. They often have numerous teachers, chang-ing classes, and a swirl of new activities and friendships. At home, families may haveincreased expectations as children move into the middle grades—parents may becomemore concerned about school achievement and at the same time expect students to take onadditional responsibilities at home, such as caring for younger siblings or working in afamily business. How does literacy, including the motivation to read and write, fit into thelives of middle-school learners, especially those who are learning English? Do these stu-dents value literacy and feel competent as readers and writers? This study focuses on thisquestion by taking a look at middle-school English learners’ literacy motivation as well asthe multiple ways they use literacy in and out of school.

Related Literature

The importance of motivation, both in and out of school, has been widely recognized.Ford (1992) called motivation the “psychological foundation for the development ofhuman competence in everyday life” (p. 244). Scholars working from a social-cognitiveperspective have long recognized the importance of motivation to learning. Studies related toexpectancy value theory (e.g., Wigfield & Eccles, 2000) are part of this tradition. This theoryof motivation focuses “on the role of students’ expectancies for academic success and theirperceived value for academic tasks” (Schunk, Pintrich, & Meece, 2008. p. 50). Related studiesin reading have found, for example, that students who have a higher expectancy of personal

Address correspondence to Elizabeth G. Sturtevant, College of Education and Human Development,George Mason University, MS 4B3, Fairfax, VA 22030. E-mail: [email protected]

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success as well as a higher perceived value for reading are likely to exhibit higher motivation inthe classroom (Gambrell, Palmer, Codling & Mazzoni, 1996). In addition, recent studies of therelationship between parent/family factors and the reading of English Language Learners havefound that “features of family life . . . appear to influence the value children place on readingand their self-concepts as readers” (Goldenberg, Rueda, & August, 2008, p. 108).

Motivation and Literacy

Literacy educators have been concerned about motivational issues for many years, withsome calling lack of student motivation to read a “pervasive problem” (Gambrell et al.,1996, p. 518) that can impact reading development (Guthrie, 1996) in both younger andolder learners (Heathington, 1979; Ivey & Broaddus, 2001). A relationship between ageand reading motivation has also been found in several studies. For example, in one studyMcKenna and Kear (1990) found that reading attitude (often considered a component ofmotivation) declined each year that children were enrolled in elementary school. Morerecently, Pitcher, Albright, et al. (2007) found that older adolescent males scored signifi-cantly lower on a measure of reading motivation than younger adolescent males.

A decline in reading motivation may be influenced by a variety of factors, includingdecreased reading time available in school as children get older. Mastropieri et al. (2003),in a review of studies related to students with special needs noted, “. . . as students withmild disabilities progress through the grade levels to secondary school, they find less andless regular classroom time allocated to reading” (p. 63). The types of literacy activitiesavailable to older learners in school may also have an influence. For example, Pitcheret al. (2007) noted that students who “judge reading and literacy activities to be unreward-ing, too difficult, or not worth the effort” may become “nonreaders . . . or alliterate adoles-cents . . . who are capable of reading but choose not to do so” (p. 379). A few researchstudies related to second language acquisition have also found relationships between alearner’s needs (“wants, drives, deficits, or other motivating factors”) and speed of learn-ing a second language (van Els, 2005, p. 671). However, this research is still in a veryearly stage and has been applied mainly in foreign language learning for business andcommerce. Further research related to early adolescent is strongly warranted. In theseyears of a students’ life, difficulties in school-related reading motivation can lead to seri-ous consequences. Middle-school students who choose not to read beyond the barest min-imums required by the school are not likely to develop the advanced literacy skillsnecessary for success in high school and beyond.

Adolescent Literacies

In studying adolescent literacy and adolescent literacy motivation it is important to lookbeyond reading in school and consider the broader spectrum of reading, writing, and com-munication in which adolescents may engage. A long history of research related to multi-literacies suggests that literacy competence in and out of school may vary dramatically(Hull & Schultz, 2001). Studies of adolescents have begun to explore reading, writing, andother forms of communication in a wide variety of settings, including the home, commu-nity, and non-school academic programs. A decade ago, Thomas Bean noted that whileadolescents often view reading in school as “boring and irrelevant” they may see readingoutside of school as “useful and enjoyable” (Bean, as cited in O’Brien, 1998). Others havedocumented multiliteracies that adolescents use at home and in the community (e.g.,Alvermann, 2001; Moje, Young, Readance, & Moore, 2000, Pitcher et al., 2007). Studies

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70 E. G. Sturtevant and G. S. Kim

specific to Hispanic youth, a primary focus of the present study, have found many literacypractices in Hispanic households. Examples include children telling stories and singingchants; older siblings reading to younger ones; and “language brokering” in which chil-dren translate and often negotiate between their parents and institutions such as doctors’offices (Moll & Gonzalez, 1994).

We need to know more, however, about school and non-school literacies, includinghow they may interrelate, and how teachers can make better use of information about thetypes of reading, writing, and communication students use and enjoy out of school. Inparticular, it seems that an expanded view of out-of-school literacies is necessary to under-standing adolescent literacy motivations because out of school literacy may be stronglyconnected to adolescents’ perceptions of their own competence as readers, writers, andlearners as well as their sense of the value of literacy. Students who perceive academic lit-eracy tasks as difficult or lacking in value may well find value (and feel competent in) thereading and writing they do outside of school in a family or community setting.Conversely, scholars have noted that those English language learners (or other students)who have not experienced literacy as a rewarding activity at home may need to find theseactivities especially rewarding at school in order to develop a strong motivation for read-ing and writing (Hamayan, 1994). However, we need to know much more about allaspects of the literacy development of adolescent English language learners. As Snowrecently noted, “Practitioners are desperate for information on how best to serve olderimmigrant students. . . . A much greater focus on postprimary second-language learners isneeded to provide a research base for improved practice in the middle and secondarygrades” (2008, p. 288).

Assessment of Adolescent Literacy Motivation

While a number of scholars have developed tools for assessing various aspects of literacymotivation for elementary children, tools exploring for adolescent literacy motivation arerelatively new. In this study we used the Adolescent Motivation to Read Profile (AMRP)that was developed by a group of researchers (Pitcher et al., 2007) as an adaptation ofGambrell et al.’s (1996) Motivation to Read Profile (MRP). Gambrell and her colleaguesdeveloped the MRP instrument for use in the elementary grades to provide teachers with ameans for better understanding aspects of their students’ reading motivation so that theycould “plan instructional activities that would support students’ reading development”(p. 529). The MRP consists of two parts, a survey and a “conversational interview.”Pitcher et al. used both of these instruments, adapting them for use with adolescents.Changes they made included rewording some survey questions to be more “adolescentfriendly” and adding questions related to the use of technology to the interview (seePitcher et al., 2007, p. 380).

Gambrell et al. (1996) designed the original survey to assess two aspects of readingmotivation—self-concept as a reader and the value of reading. They based their design onthe expectancy—value theory mentioned earlier, noting, “. . . a number of current theoriessuggest that self-perceived competence and task value are major determinants of motiva-tion and task engagement . . . that students who believe they are capable and competentreaders are more likely to outperform those who do not hold such beliefs” (p. 518, empha-sis in the original). In the survey instrument, the items that focus on self-concept as areader are designed to elicit information about students’ self-perceived competence inreading and self-perceived performance relative to peers. The value of reading itemsare designed to elicit information about the value students place on reading tasks and

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activities, particularly in terms of frequency of engagement and reading-related activities(p. 522).

Gambrell et al. (1996) conducted analyses of construct validity as well as reliabilityfor the survey instrument. In their revision of this instrument for adolescents, Pitcher et al.(2007) state that they combined the expertise of 11 adolescent literacy educators fromNorth America and the Caribbean, and then administered the survey to 384 adolescentsand the interview to 100 adolescents at 8 sites. Their sample was diverse [22% AfricanAmerican, 37% Caucasian, 30% Afro/Indo-Trini (from Trinidad and Tobago), and 10%“other”]. The authors found no significant differences on students’ self-concept of readingbetween grade level, gender, or ethnic groups; however, for the “value” of reading theyfound that females had significantly higher scores than males. Furthermore, they foundthat females’ valuing scores increased over the grade levels while males’ decreased, andthat African-American and Afro/Indi-Trini students valued reading more than Caucasianstudents or students from other ethnicities (p. 391). The authors also noted that “students’use of multiliteracies was overwhelmingly apparent in the interview data” (2007, p. 392).

While the Pitcher et al. study included a diverse United States as well as a multinationalpopulation, it included few if any English learners participating in English for Speakers ofOther Languages (ESOL) classes in the United States. This population is growing dramati-cally and teachers would benefit from having instruments available that they could use tohelp them better understand these students’ strengths and needs. The current study wasdeveloped, therefore, to explore uses of the AMRP survey with this group of young people.

In sum, while studies have indicated the importance of knowing more about students’literacy motivation and the types of literacies they use in and out of school, we still have avery limited knowledge of the literacy-related perspectives of diverse young adolescents.Increased understanding in this area could enable educators to build school curriculumand home/school programs that would better serve the needs of this population; it alsocould help adolescents themselves to better understand and appreciate their own compe-tence as learners and users of literacy.

Method

Research Questions

This was a mixed-methods study using a survey instrument as well as semi-structuredinterviews. The over-arching research question, related to both the survey and the inter-view data, was: What are characteristics of literacy motivation and uses of literacy in andout of school for diverse middle-school students learning English as a new language? Forthe quantitative (survey) data, after a preliminary analysis showing no differences bygender or ESOL level in relation to the “self-concept” scores, three additional researchquestions related to the “valuing” scores were developed, as follows:

1. Was there a gender difference in valuing reading for middle-school ESOL students?2. Was there a difference in valuing reading for middle-school ESOL levels (beginners,

intermediate, and advanced)?3. Did gender, ESOL level, and self concept as reader predict valuing reading scores for

middle-school ESOL students?

The research questions were developed in response to findings of earlier studies related toadolescent literacy motivation. Specifically, as noted earlier, there has been a call for moreresearch related to adolescent literacy motivation as well as the in and out of school literacies

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72 E. G. Sturtevant and G. S. Kim

of diverse adolescents. Second, earlier research (e.g. Pitcher et al., 2007) found gender dif-ferences in literacy motivation using the same survey that was used in the present study.They also found grade-level differences, especially for males, with older adolescent malesvaluing reading less than younger adolescent males; however, this difference was not pur-sued in the present study since the students were all in middle school and Pitcher et al.’sparticipants ranged from early to older adolescents.

Curriculum and Class Placement

The school, located in an eastern U.S. metropolitan region with a large and diverse immi-grant population, followed the ESOL program offered by the district, which included 3levels (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced). According to district personnel, studentswere placed into levels of ESOL class based on district-created criterion-referenced tests,writing samples, standardized reading tests [Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) (QuestarAssessments, Inc., n.d.)], and class performance. Students at the beginner and intermediatelevels took their core classes of English, science, and social studies from teachers whowere certified in ESOL while students in the advanced level had reading/language arts andsocial studies from ESOL teachers and other classes in the mainstream. In this study,which took place in the spring of the school year, intact classes were used and theresearchers did not participate in assigning students to groups. The ESOL teachers of thebeginner and intermediate were bilingual and bicultural in English and Spanish. Theteacher who taught the advanced class also spoke Spanish.

Survey

Participants who completed the survey included 27 boys and 23 girls enrolled in 3 ESOLclasses in grades 6, 7, and 8. Data were collected from all students in three ESOL classes[beginner (n = 16), intermediate (n = 18), and advanced (n = 16)] after gaining appropriatepermissions. During the year the data were collected, the school was comprised of739 students, with 22% of the population (162) enrolled in ESOL classes and 41% of thetotal school population receiving free or reduced lunch. The participants were originallyfrom a variety of world regions (e.g., Central and South America, Africa, and SoutheastAsia) with the majority (84%) being Spanish speakers.

A 20-question survey was administered to all 50 students. As noted earlier, the survey wasthe Motivation to Read Profile (Gambrell et al., 1996) with wording slightly adapted for ado-lescents (Pitcher et al., 2007). Consistent with Gambrell et al.’s protocol, students’ answerswere categorized into two separate scores: self concept as reader and value of reading. Onsome questions, the response options were ordered least positive to most positive, with the leastpositive response option having a value of 1 point and the most positive option having a pointvalue of 4. On the other items, however, the response options were reversed. The questions thathad reverse orders were recoded. Each student had two scores for this survey: self concept asreader score, and value of reading score. The scores were entered into SPSS (version 15) andanalyzed for significant differences according to gender and ESOL level. In addition, value ofreading was predicted using gender, ESOL level, and self concept as reader.

Survey Data Collection Procedures. On the day of the survey, two researchers visitedeach of the three ESOL classes at the school. To ensure that the students comprehended,each survey question, as well as the choices for answers, was read aloud, and there wereSpanish translators for the 42 (84% of the sample) Spanish-speaking students. The ESOL

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teachers of beginners and intermediate classes volunteered as translators for the survey.For the advanced class, a translator was not provided because the English proficiency ofthe students warranted their comprehending the questions. While translators were notavailable for students who were non-Spanish-speaking, the ESOL teachers were presentthroughout the assessment and took steps to ensure that all students understood the questionsand the choices. For example, they checked frequently to see if students understood and theygave synonyms for terms that students found confusing. Questions were also re-read moreslowly for any student who requested this.

Survey Data Analysis Procedures. For Research Question 1, “Were there gender differ-ences in the value of reading score?” T-test for independent samples was used. Gendersare two, independent groups, so using the T-test was appropriate.

For Research Question 2, “Were there differences in the value of reading score fordifferent ESOL levels?” ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) was used. Since there were threeseparate groups, ANOVA was used to determine the differences in the groups’ readingvalue scores. In case there were differences among groups, the Post Hoc Tukey test wasalso run to determine which pairs of groups had the differences.

For Research Question 3, “Did gender, ESOL level, and self-concept as reader predictvalue of reading score?” multiple linear regression was used. There were three predictors—gender, ESOL level, and self-concept as reader; therefore, simple regression was not anoption. Out of the three predictors, the second predictor, ESOL level, was a categoricalvariable with three levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced). So, recoding ESOLlevel into two levels (beginners—1; intermediate and advanced—2) was necessary to runthe multiple linear regression test.

Interviews

Purposive sampling was used to select students for interview. These students were mem-bers of the classes that were surveyed. Teachers were asked select 8 students who variedin gender, grade, country of origin, time in the United States, and ESOL proficiency. Onlystudents judged by teachers to be conversationally proficient in English were interviewed.Thus, most, but not all, of the interviewees were in the intermediate and advanced classes.The students ranged from sixth to eighth grade and ages 11 to 14. Half of the intervieweeswere girls and the other half were boys. Their time in the United States varied from oneyear to 11 years. One student was born in the United States to Salvadorian parents. Theother seven students immigrated to the United States at various ages from Eritrea, Pakistan,Honduras, Mexico, and Bolivia. Descriptions of the students are included in Figure 1.

Interview Data Collection Procedures. As noted earlier, the interview protocol (AdolescentMotivation to Read: Conversational Interview for English Language Learners) (see Appendix)was an adapted version of the Adolescent Motivation to Read: Conversational Interview(Pitcher et al., 2007) that had been adapted earlier for use with adolescent learners from theMotivation to Read: Conversational Interview developed by Gambrell and her colleagues(1996). We modified the interview protocol for these English learners by adding questionsabout literacy in the student’s home language, family/child communication, and home or com-munity activities related to communication in a bi- or multilingual environment.

The interviews were conducted by two researchers, authors of this article, who each hadextensive previous experience with middle-school English language learners. One of theresearchers is a professor with a strong background in adolescent literacy and previous experience

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74 E. G. Sturtevant and G. S. Kim

with middle-school ESOL learners as both a teacher and researcher. The other researcher is agraduate student who is a licensed ESOL teacher with experience at the middle-school level.This researcher is bilingual (although in Korean/English, not Spanish/English) and she has per-sonal experience as a middle-school ESOL learner as she immigrated to the United States atage 11 and attended middle school in the same region where the study took place.

Interview Data Analysis Procedures. The first interview was conducted jointly to estab-lish consistency. Each interview took between 30 and 40 minutes and was tape-recorded.While asking the interview questions, the researchers “develop(ed) tentative ideas aboutcategories and relationships” (Maxwell, 2005). Each tape was then transcribed and thetranscripts were read repeatedly. The researchers met and developed the following top-level categories: H for reading/writing at home; S for reading/writing at school; C forreading/writing in community (not home nor school); HL for use of home language (oradditional languages—some students had more than one home language); D for generaldemographic information; A for general reading attitude; F for future plans; I for interests(not at school and not reading/writing); and X for items that would not fit in any of theother categories. These categories were used as codes as they defined the characteristics ofthe data (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996). The graduate research assistant went back to the tran-scripts and coded every line of the interviews, sometimes with more than one code (Coffey &Atkinson, 1996). The transcriptions were imported into Ethnograph (Qualis, Version 5), whichenabled retrieval of data under specific categories. Themes within and across the codes werethen developed and compared and contrasted among the eight students.

Results

Survey Results

Overall, analysis of the survey data found similarities among students of different genders,but differences between the beginning ESOL group and the higher groups (intermediateand advanced), with the beginner group exhibiting higher valuing of reading.

FIGURE 1 Brief descriptions of students who were interviewed.

Adelia is a 13-year-old 8th-grade girl. She moved to the United States from Hondurasabout 1 year and 2 months ago.Arfa is a 13-year-old 8th-grade girl from Pakistan. She came to the United Statesabout 2 years ago.Asmeret is a 6th-grade girl from Eritrea. She came to the United States about 2 yearsago. She is the sister of Sbhat.Joaquin is a 12-year-old 6th-grade boy from Bolivia who came to the United States2 years ago.Josephina is an 11-year-old 6th-grade girl who was born in the United States to amother from El Salvador.Luis is a 7th-grade boy from Bolivia. He has been in the United States for 5 years.Sebastiano is a 13-year-old 8th-grade boy who came from Mexico about 1 year and4 months ago.Sbhat is a 13-year-old 8th-grade boy from Eritrea who came to the United States about2 years ago. He is the brother of Asmeret.

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Literacy Motivation and School/Non-School Literacies 75

Research Question One. Did the genders differ on valuing reading? The T-test forindependent samples was run for the differences of gender on valuing reading. The resultsfrom the Levene’s Test for Equal Variances show that the population variances areequal, p = .169. Since p > .05, there is no statistically significant difference between thepopulation mean of the boys and the population mean of the girls on valuing of reading,t (48) = −.203, p = .169. Therefore, we failed to reject the Ho: m1-m2 = 0, the null hypothe-sis that the population mean of boys is equal to the population mean of the girls on valuingof reading (see Table 1).

Research Question Two. Were there group (ESOL levels) differences on valuing of read-ing? To find the answer to this question, ANOVA was run with ESOL levels as fixed fac-tor (independent variables) and value of reading as the dependent variable. The resultsshow that there were statistically significant differences among the three groups, F (2, 47)=11.52, p < .001. Further, post hoc test (Tukey) results show that there were statisticallysignificant differences between beginners and intermediates (p < .001) and between begin-ners and advanced (p < .001). Specifically, the 95% Confidence Interval shows that(a) beginners had higher value of reading than intermediate by 5.82 but not more than21.62 points and (b) beginners had higher value of reading scores than advanced by 5.81but not more than 22.07 points (see Table 2).

Table 1Means of reading value by gender

Reading value

Boys Girls

Mean 73.30 73.96n 27 23SD 12.715 9.800

Table 2Means of reading value by ESL levels

ESL level Reading value

BeginnersMean 83.00n 16Standard deviation 6.272

IntermediateMean 69.28n 18Standard deviation 10.576

AdvancedMean 69.06n 16Standard deviation 10.804

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76 E. G. Sturtevant and G. S. Kim

Research Question Three. Did gender, ESOL level, and self-concept as reader predictvaluing reading score for middle-school ESOL students? The results from the ANOVAtable indicate that gender, ESOL level, and self-concept as reader were accounted forby a statistically significant proportion of the variance in valuing reading, F (3,46) =13.90, p < .001. Further, R square = .475 shows that 47.5% of the variance in the valueof reading was accounted for by the variances in all predictors together. Also, each ofthe predictors contributed uniquely to the variance in the value of reading (p < .001).The Beta Coefficients show the relative importance of predictors from the highest tolowest is ESOL level (B = −.53), self-concept as reader (B = .40), and gender (B = .16)(see Table 3).

Interview Results

Reading in School

Students were asked several questions about reading in school; however, in general thistopic did not generate extensive responses. In terms of reading ease, students indicatedthat reading was easiest in their ESOL class (where books on a variety of levels are used)and harder in classes such as social studies and science, where a common text was used.Students also said that history and science were difficult because of vocabulary and unfa-miliar topics.

Regarding teachers reading aloud to the class (a common technique in these classes)5 of 8 students indicated they enjoyed this activity. For example, Adelia noted read aloudswere “easy to understand,” and Sebastiano noted they were “fun.” Sbhat described theprocess his teacher used, including ways she responded to student needs: “Cause some-times she [the teacher] quick [reads too quickly], but we told her to get back, and she listento us. . . .”

Three students, however, indicated that they did not like teacher read-alouds. Forexample, Arfa said they were too slow: “Because. . . . If we know how to read, we canfinish early and we [could] do something else.” However, another student (Joaquin) saidread-alouds were too fast.

Reading Outside of School. Conversely, students talked extensively about their out ofschool literacy, describing a wide variety of literacy activities that were primarily withinthe family or neighborhood. Categories in this area included (A) What children did forparents; (B) What parents did for children; (C) What the family did together; and (D)Ways the students performed literacy acts alone. We also include in this section informa-tion on students’ general attitudes toward reading outside of school.

Table 3Multiple regression analysis for variables predicting reading value (n = 50)

Variable B SE B b R square

Gender −3.729 2.524 −.165* .475*ESOL level −12.694 2.596 −.527*Self-concept as reader .448 .126 .401*

*p < .001.

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Ways students helped family members with literacy. Seven of the eight students indi-cated that they helped their family members with academic literacy activities. These includedhelping parents study for exams, tutoring a parent or other relative in English, and teachingreading in the home language to a younger sister. For example, Sbhat, an eighth grader origi-nally from Eritrea (in Africa), described helping his father, who was a physician in their homecountry, with studying for an upcoming university class examination in nursing.

Sbhat: “I helped my father if he had exam like tomorrow. I helped himat night.”

Interviewer: “. . . how do you help him?”Sbhat: “I readed the book, I readed the nurse book, and I give him

exam, I [make] my own question and . . . I give him a question.If he answer, I give him check.”

I: “So, you are his teacher!”Sbhat: “Just like teacher . . . sometimes he call[s] me, ‘Come on,

I have test so you need to give me [a practice test]. Test me!’”I: “So, you read his [textbook] to make the questions?”Sbhat: “Yeah.”

Josephina also assisted an older family member with studying. She described how she andher older brother helped their uncle (age “26 or 27”) learn English by providing theirsocial studies textbooks for him to read and study: “My uncle wants me and my brother toget him, like, books from social studies [textbooks from the middle school] cause he likesreading about those kind of stuff.”

Arfa worked with her mother, helping her learn English: “. . . my mom I always help . . .she say that . . . she likes to learn English. She wants to know how to speak, and . . . sheasks me in Urdu ‘what’s that mean, how do you say in English?’”

Asmeret noted that she helped her eight-year-old sister with reading in Tigrinia, thelanguage of Eritrea, because her parents were concerned that her sister might be losing thelanguage:

Interviewer: “When you work with her [younger sister], what do you do tohelp her learn?

Asmeret: “. . . my language (Tigrinia) . . . sometimes, she talk to usEnglish, not talk . . . in Tigrinia.”

I: “And you said your parents were a little afraid she’d forgetyour home language, right?”

L: “She told my mom and my dad, ‘How come you don’t talk [at]home English?’”

I: “Uh-huh, uh-huh.”L: “My mom and my dad said . . . because you forget [Tigrinia]

if you talk in English [at home].”

In addition to helping their family members with academic literacy activities, these stu-dents helped out with the practical literacy needs of their family members. For example,two students (Adelia and Lorenzo) mentioned translating for their parents to communicatewith employers. Several students said they helped parents or guardians with translations atschool conferences. Translation also included written translation. For example, Joaquinsaid he has helped translate documents for his step-father to get a passport.

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The students also reported that their family members encouraged them to learn. Stu-dents reported numerous specific comments family members had made to them about theimportance of learning, and explained ways their families tried to create circumstancesconducive to learning. For example, Adelia mentioned that she always plans for her futureand that she learned to have this attitude from her mom: “My mom always tells me thatI have to be responsible and I have to study hard because that’s the only thing we can do.”Sbhat discussed ways in which his father motivated him to believe in himself:

My father always say, ‘if you say, I can do this, you will do it.’ So, I said thefirst time, on 3rd grade, all my friends are so genius, they are so smart, soalways they take a prize. Always they are 1st. I am 2nd or 3rd. So, I say bymyself, ‘I can do this.’ The first time I read was one book and then one book,the first time, and the second time, I read two books on one day, and gettingbetter and better.

Several students also said their mothers encouraged them to read books (Arfa andJosephina), or that their parents encouraged them to practice handwriting (Lorenzo andJosephina). Several also mentioned ways their parents provided resources for literacy intheir home language and/or in English. For example Arfa’s father (who worked at theircountry’s embassy and had access to its library) brought home an Urdu poetry book forher to read, in order to maintain her native language, while Joaquin’s mother drove him tothe public library on weekends. In addition, Joaquin’s step-father installed dual-languagecapabilities on their home computer so that he could maintain Spanish while continuing tolearn English.

Students also reported that their families did a variety of literacy-related activitiestogether. For example, several reported participating in religious services using native lan-guage religious texts and hymnals. Arfa said that her family read from the Koran in Arabiceveryday for one hour (this was a third language for her); Adelia said that she and hermother read and discussed Spanish novels that they borrowed from the public library:

Interviewer: “Ok. So . . . does your mom, read any Spanish at home?”Adelia: “Yes, she reads.”I: “She has Spanish books?”A: “Uh-huh.”I: “[Did she bring] Spanish books from her country?”A: “No, sometime we . . . go to the library and, well, sometimes

I read books. But I tell my mother that this book is so good, shehave to read it, and she read it.”

I: “Oh, you go to the library and check out some Spanish books?”A: “Uh-huh.”

Sbhat and Asmeret (brother and sister) reported that they studied vocabulary together athome through a process they developed with their father. Sbhat (who is older) finds newwords in a book he is reading and makes sentences using those new words. Then his sister(who they agree is better at typing) types up all the words and sentences for them to keepand study from:

Sbhat: “I didn’t even know one word [from Harry Potter], like onesentence word, so, I write on a [notebook], just like a diary, you

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know. I did like 25 page[s]. I give [it] to my father and he said,‘You need to finish this and you need to give [it] to your sister‘cause she likes typing.’”

Interviewer: “Uh-huh.”A: “She [my sister] was so quick . . . I can give her and she can put

it just like a book. So, she’s doing like on computer, I read forher and she’s doing and after we finish it, we print it.”

I: “So, you read a book, and then, you tell her about the book.”A: “Yeah. I read, I writed all my book, and I tell her the some of

the words, the sentence and she write it on the computer.”

Students’ personal literacy activities at home. Five of the eight students interviewedmentioned specific personal reading and writing activities they do at home: Another(Josephina) said she used to be a reader until she lost her library card. Three of the stu-dents interviewed, all girls (Arfa, Adelia, and Asmeret) also mentioned that they do somewriting at home in the form of journals, traditional letters, e-mails, book summaries, andmaking lists of new words to study.

Students also described a variety of strategies they used at home to improve theirreading. These included (a) asking for help from those around them, like from father(Arfa) or sister (Adelia); (b) skipping words and coming back to them later (Josephina andAdelia); and (c) looking the words up in their native language dictionary (Arfa).

Students’ General Attitudes about Reading. In the interviews, students also discussedtheir beliefs about the importance of reading. All felt reading was important. Five men-tioned that reading helps a person improve his or her reading skills; five mentioned it wasimportant for the future (such as for occupations); and one student (Asmeret) mentionedthat reading was important in order to learn to help those who do not read: “If you aregood reader . . . people will come to you. To help them . . . if you are good, so people cometo you.”

Students’ Concerns and Attitudes toward Maintaining Their First Language. Students’ com-ments about the ease or difficulty of maintaining their first language varied partly in rela-tion to the language itself. For example, Arfa mentioned that it was hard to obtain readingmaterials in Urdu in the United States. Others felt that maintaining their language wasimportant for the connection with their country and family. For example, Sbhat said it isimportant for him to maintain his knowledge of Tigrinia because, “. . . I can (have a) con-nection with my country, with my mother.” Others had practical ideas related to theirfutures. For example, Sebastiano thought knowing two languages was good for travel orcommunicating with diverse groups:

Interviewer: “Do you think it’s important for people to know two languages?”Sebastiano: “Very important.”I: “It’s very important? Why?”S: “Because with two languages, you can go everywhere you

want, and you can speak. If they speak in English, you canrespond. And Spanish too.”

In addition, three students (Asmeret, Adelia, and Joaquin) said knowing two languagesis good for helping others who don’t know English. For example, Adelia noted,

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“Because now this country has many Spanish people, and [when] I grow up. . . . Well, I’mgonna help them and with English, English help me because I’m here, I’m in this country.”

Discussion

This study was designed to examine literacy motivation among students in ESOL classesin middle school. Specifically, we explored the characteristics of literacy motivation anduses of literacy in and out of school for diverse middle-school students learning English asa new language.

As in the study conducted by Pitcher and her colleagues (2007) who studied adoles-cent literacy motivation with similar instruments, students’ descriptions of their out ofschool literacies were interesting and varied. Like Pitcher et al.’s participants, the studentsin this study discussed multiple uses of technology. They also described extensive supportthey provided to others, especially family members, in literacy-related endeavors, and dis-cussed supports their families provided them. These ranged from addressing serious,work-related, and legal issues (interpreting contracts, helping with passports, communi-cating with employers), to sharing a love of literature (a daughter sharing books with amother; a brother with a sister), to, in some families, a great effort to maintain literatepractices in two or more languages. We also learned from the interviews that, in-school,most students in this study enjoyed read-alouds and the reading material available in theESOL English classroom, but reported difficulty with social studies and science texts.This is consistent with other literature that has reported that beginning in the late elemen-tary- or middle-school years, schools often begin to require difficult textbooks in thesesubjects, which is associated with a decline in student motivation (e.g., Sturtevant, Boyd,Brozo, Hinchman, Moore, & Alvermann, 2006).

The survey used in this study (Gambrell, 1996; Pitcher et al., 2007) was originallydeveloped in part using expectancy value theory, which suggests that students who place ahigher value on a particular type of learning (such as reading) and expect to be successfulwill likely have higher motivation and achievement than those who place a lower value onthat type of learning and/or have a lower expectation of their own success. Thus the ques-tions in the survey related both to the students’ “valuing” of reading as well as their self-concept as readers (related in part to their expectation of success). As noted earlier, weexplored relationships between students’ valuing of reading and their gender, ESOL level,and self-concept as readers.

Regarding gender, the T-test did not indicate differences on valuing of reading in girlsversus boys. This is in contrast to earlier work, such as Pitcher et al. (2007), who foundgirls valuing reading more than boys. This was not the case in our sample of students inESOL classes. In addition, the multiple linear regression results for this study indicatedthat three variables [gender, ESOL level (recoded into beginner and intermediate +advanced for this test) and self-concept as a reader] when considered together did predictvaluing of reading scores. Among these, the ESOL level was most strongly related to val-uing of reading scores, but in a way we found surprising: Overall, the least proficientEnglish language learners had higher valuing of reading scores than those who were moreproficient. This was not linked to age (numerous studies have shown motivation declineswith age), since the beginner groups were not younger than the more advanced groups(they were mixed-age groups).

This result must be interpreted with caution. On the one hand, it is troubling to learnthat students may come to believe reading is less valuable or useful as they become morecompetent in English. Also, in relation to expectancy value theory, in this study the

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students who were more proficient seemed to attribute less value to the area of study thanthose who were less proficient (which seems opposite to the concept that higher valuing ofa subject would lead to greater success). However, since the study was not longitudinal, itis not known if the beginners in our group will, over time, lose their enthusiasm for thevalue of reading, or if the more advanced students had early enthusiasm that they havesince lost. Also, the students in the beginner class had, for the most part, been in U.S.schools less time than those in the more advanced classes, so opportunity for learningEnglish was not as great. In addition, each class experienced different contextual condi-tions, even at the same school, as they had different ESOL teachers and the moreadvanced students took more classes outside the ESOL program. More research is war-ranted to explore this issue.

This study also extends the work of Pitcher et al. as well as Gambrell et al. (1996) bygaining information from a different group of students, English learners in the middleschool. Pitcher et al. noted at the end of their study, “. . . we wholeheartedly believe thatthis research needs to be expanded to other populations” (2007, p. 394). In this spirit, thepresent study contributes an adapted interview protocol (Adolescent Motivation to Read:Conversational Interview for English Learners), which includes questions related to learn-ing and using two or more languages in and out of school.

Limitations

There were several limitations to this study that must be considered when interpreting theresults. First, the results are limited to students in the classes that were studied, since thiswas not a comparative study including a larger group. In addition, the quantitative resultsrelated to level of ESOL class should be interpreted with caution since intact classes wereused and assessment of students and placement in the beginner, intermediate, or advancedlevels took place earlier in the school year as a result of district-controlled assessments.Third, results were limited by the lack of availability of interpreters in all languages thestudents spoke, both for the surveys and the interviews. The interview group cannot besaid to represent all of the three levels of students equally, since only conversationally pro-ficient students were selected. Similarly, although the researchers and teachers madeevery effort to insure that all students understood the questions, interpretations in students’strongest language would have been preferable. In addition, the interview data should beconsidered in light of the purposes of qualitative research. Our aim was to begin to get anin-depth look at the various types and uses of literacy of students in the population westudied. Many more studies will be needed to expand on what we have found in conversa-tion with these particular participants.

Implications

This study contributes to the emerging body of knowledge documenting middle-gradestudents’ literacy motivation, with a focus on a growing population of students,English learners in the United States. Additional research is greatly needed to furtherexplore some of the results of this study. Specifically, we need to know what happensto English learners’ motivation as they gain competence in English, and what schoolsand families can do to prevent a potential loss of enthusiasm for reading, writing, andlearning as students gain in English language competence. We also need to continueto develop new ways to assess adolescent literacy motivation that are both quantita-tive and qualitative.

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With regard to instruction, we sincerely hope that teachers and others who workdirectly with youth will find the adapted interview useful, and will use it (or portions of it)for assessing their students’ strengths and needs and developing instruction that links outof school and in school literacies. The interview questions could also be used in discus-sions with adolescents and their families to help them better understand their own literacyhistories and the multiple and a varied ways they use literacy in their lives.

References

Alvermann, D. E. (2001). Effective literacy instruction for adolescents. Chicago, IL: National ReadingConference.

Coffey, A., & Atkinson, P. (1996). Making sense of qualitative data: Complementary strategies.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Ford, M. (1992). Motivating humans: Goals, emotions, and personal agency beliefs. Newbury Park,CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Gambrell, L. B., Palmer, B. M., Codling, R. M., & Mazzoni, S. A. (1996). Assessing motivation toread. The Reading Teacher, 49, 518–533.

Hamayan, E. V. (1994). Language development of low-literacy students. In F. Genesee (Ed.),Educating second language children: The whole child, curriculum, the whole community(pp. 278–300). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Goldenberg, C., Rueda, R. S., & August, D. (2008). Sociocultural contexts and literacy develop-ment. In D. August & T. Shanahan (Eds.), Developing reading and writing in second-languagelearners: Lessons for the report of the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Childrenand Youth (pp. 95–129). New York: Routledge.

Guthrie, J. T. (1996). Growth of literacy engagement: Changes in motivations and strategies duringconcept-oriented reading instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 31(3), 306–332.

Heathington, B. S. (1979). What to do about reading motivation in the middle school. Journal ofReading, 22, 709–713.

Hull, G., & Schultz, K. (2001). Literacy and learning out of school: A review of theory and research.Review of Educational Research, 71, 575–611.

Ivey, G., & Broaddus, K. (2001). “Just plain reading”: A survey of what makes students want to readin middle school classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 36(4), 350–377.

McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for teachers.The Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626–639.

Mastropieri, M. A., Scruggs, T. E., Spencer, V., & Fontana, J. (2003). Promoting success in highschool world history: Peer tutoring versus guided notes. Learning Disabilities Research andPractice, 18, 52–65.

Maxwell, J. (2005). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage Publications.

Moje, E. B., Young, J. P., Readence, J. E., & Moore, D. W. (2000). Reinventing adolescent liter-acy for new times: Perennial and millennial issues. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 43,400–410.

Moll, L. C., & González, N. (1994). Lessons from research with language-minority children.Journal of Reading Behavior, 26, 439–456.

O’Brien, D. G. (1998). Multiple literacies in a high-school program for “at-risk” adolescents. InD. E. Alvermann, K. A. Hinchmann, D. W. Moore, S. F. Phelps, & D. R. Waff (Eds.), Reconcep-tualizing the literacies in adolescents’ lives (pp. 27–49). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Pitcher, S. M., Albright, L. K., DeLaney, C. J., Walker, N. T., Seunarinesingh, K., Mogge, S. et al.(2007). Assessing adolescents’ motivation to read. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy,50(5), 378–396.

Questar Assessments, Inc. (n.d.) Degree of reading power program. Retried from http://www.questarai.com/products/drpprogram/pages/default.aspx

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Schunk, D. H., Pintrich, P. R. & Meece, J. L. (2008). Motivation in education: Theory, research,and applications (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Snow, C. (2008). Cross-cutting themes and future research directions. In D. August & T. Shanahan(Eds.), Developing reading and writing in second-language learners: Lessons for the report of theNational Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth (pp. 275–300). New York:Routledge.

Sturtevant, E. G., Boyd, F., Brozo, W., Hinchman, K., Moore, D. W., & Alvermann, D. (2006).Principled practices for adolescent literacy: A framework for instruction and policy. Mahwah,NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

van Els, T. (2005). Status planning for teaching and learning. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research insecond language teaching and learning (pp. 971–991). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. (2000). Expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation. ContemporaryEducational Psychology, 25, 68–81.

Appendix

Adolescent Motivation to Read: Conversational Interview for English Learners

E. G. Sturtevant & Grace Kim, adapted from the Adolescent Motivation to Read: Conver-sational Interview by Pitcher et al. (2007)

To Interviewer:Explain that you are interested in learning more about middle school students’ reading,

writing, and language at school and also outside of school.

Background Information

1. Tell me a little about your background. (How old are you? What grade are you in?How long you have been at [your school]? Where did you go to elementary school; inwhat country were you born?).

2. Tell me a little about your family. Who lives in your home? What languages do yourfamily members speak?

3. How long have you lived in the U.S. (probe for whether student has gone back andforth, e.g., living some of the time in the US and some in the home country).

4. What language do you normally speak at home? (probe for whether he/she speaksdifferent languages to different people in the home, and/or if he/she is spoken to in adifferent language but responds in English).

5. Have you learned to read and write in the language spoken in your home (if notEnglish)? If so, how did you learn to do this?

6. Can you think of some things that you read in English at home (probe for books,newspapers, computer, religious materials, magazines, other environmental print suchas phone books).

7. Can you think of some things you read in your family’s language at home (sameprobes).

8. How often do you watch TV? Do you watch in English or your home language? Canyou understand both?

9. Do you, or does anyone in your home, look at websites that are in your home language?Can you give an example?

10. Do you ever help your parents or other relatives translate important papers? If so, canyou give an example? How did it go when you did this?

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11. Did you ever go somewhere with your parents or other relatives to help them under-stand a conversation in English (for example, a bank, a school meeting). Can you givean example? How did it go?

Reading

To the Interviewer: Explain that we are interested in learning more about middle schoolstudents’ reading of stories (narrative) and also non-fiction materials, like textbooks,information on the Internet, or newspapers (expository).

A. Emphasis: Narrative Text

1. Tell me about the most interesting story or book you have read recently. Take a fewminutes to think about it (wait time). Now, tell me about the book.

Probe: What else can you tell me? Is there anything else? What language was the bookwritten in?

2. How did you know or find out about this book?(Some possible responses: assigned, chosen, in school, out of school)

3. Why was this story interesting to you?

B. Emphasis: Informational Text

Interviewer, say this: “Often we read to find out or learn about something that interests us.I am going to ask you some questions about what you like to learn about from reading.”

1. Think about something important that you learned recently, not from your teacher andnot from television, but from something you have read. What did you read about?(Wait time.) Tell me about what you learned. (Probe for language material was read in).

Probes: What else could you tell me? Is there anything else?2. How did you know or find out about reading material on this?

(Some possible responses: assigned, chosen, in school, out of school)3. Why was reading this important to you?

C. Emphasis: General Reading

1. Did you read anything at home yesterday? ______ What? (Probe for language; probealso for various types of reading—for school, for fun, in a book, on the Internet, news-paper, magazine, etc.)

2. Do you have anything at school (desk, locker, backpack) today that you are reading?Tell me about it.

3. Do you have a favorite author? If so, tell me about him or her. Why is this author yourfavorite?

4. How do you think you could improve your own reading? Why? Do you try to do this?5. Is it important to be a good reader in English? Why or why not?6. Is it important to be a good reader in your home language? Why or why not?7. Did someone ever do something that got you interested in reading a book, or some-

thing else? Who? What did he/she do?8. Do you use computers sometimes? What do you do on a computer? How much time

do you think you spend on a computer a day?

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9. Where do you use computers? At school? At home? Somewhere else? (Probe forlibrary, friend’s house, parent’s workplace, youth club, internet café).

10. Do you ever read something in a language other than English on the computer?

D. Emphasis: School Reading in Comparison to Home Reading

1. What types of reading do your teachers ask you to do this year in school? What isyour favorite type? Why?

2. Do you have any classes where you can read materials in your home language?(Explain)

3. Do you have any classes in which your teacher reads to the class? Explain. How doyou feel about this?

4. In what class do you feel the reading is the most difficult? What makes it difficult?5. In what class is reading easiest? What makes it easy?6. Do you ever talk with friends about reading? For example, some friends look at mag-

azines or the Internet together. Other friends talk about books together. (If so,describe.)

7. Do you ever write at home, besides doing your homework? What do you write? Doyou ever use the computer for writing at home? What language do you write in?

8. Do you ever read things with members of your family such as newspapers, maga-zines, religious materials, games? Explain.

9. Do you ever read to your brothers, sisters, or other family members? Explain.10. Have you helped anyone else to learn to read or write? Explain.11. What language do you use when you share reading materials with your family?12. Do you belong to any clubs or organizations for which you read and write? Could you

explain what kind of reading or writing it is? (Give example, sometimes people readreligious materials at church, or scout manuals at Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts).

13. Do you ever work, or help others with work, where you read or write? For example, stu-dents sometimes help their parents in a job or family store (If yes, probe for more detail).

14. What is your favorite class at school? Why?15. What is your favorite thing to do outside of school? Why?

Future Goals/Plans

1. In the next year, what kinds of new materials would you like to learn to read or write?Why?

2. What sort of job would you like to have when you grow up? Why?3. What sorts of reading and writing do you think you will need to use for that job?4. Do you think it is useful for people to be able to speak and read and write in two

languages? If so, explain how.5. Do you think having two languages has ever caused a problem for you? Explain.6. Is there anything that worries or concerns you about reading or writing? Please explain.

Thank you for helping us learn more about middle school students!

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