Bilingual Education: Improvement in Literacy Skills of Non-U.S. Born Students by Providing ESOL Support and Parent Workshops

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate literacy outcomes of non-U.S. born students to better support ELL parents, specifically, kindergarten and first-grade students in a public school in the state of Maryland. The measurement tool was a revision of scores from the time of enrollment and a year after attendance in schools. In this descriptive study, a pre/posttest design was utilized in kindergarten and first-grade students in one of the largest school systems in the country. The participants in this study were 12 bilingual students receiving ESOL services in a public school system. The group consisted of six male and six female students enrolled in kindergarten and first grade. These students, originally from Central America and Mexico, arrived in the United States during the 2019-2020 school year. In addition to these students, their parents were also participants in this study. Findings showed each family is from either Central America or Mexico and moved to the United States after their children were born. The researcher concluded that these monolingual speaking Spanish children, later enrolled in a public school, demonstrated improvement in their reading, speaking, writing, and comprehension skills in English. Further research must be conducted with a larger group of participants; also, it will be imperative to include educators and administrators to determine how their understanding of ELL families’ cultures and values could have an influence on the students’ learning.