Comparing the Reading and Writing Performance of I-FEP/R-FEP Students with EO Students in An Eleventh Grade College Preparatory English Classroom

The central purpose of this research study was to describe and compare the performance of R-FEP (re-designated fluent English proficient) and 1-FEP (from non-English speaking homes, but initially designated as fluent English proficient) students to their EO (English Only) counterparts in an 11th Grade college preparatory English classroom. The study also looked at the following questions and inferred from them relationships between R-FEP/1-FEP and English Only students: (1) What strategies are used to bring pre-adolescent and adolescent English language learners to English Fluent Proficient status? (2) How long does it take to bring pre­ adolescent and adolescent English language learners to English proficient status? (3) What variables effect the time it takes pre-adolescent and adolescent English learners to achieve English proficient status? (4) How is English language proficiency demonstrated? Basic methodology involved a non-experimental, descriptive research study comparing 28 Eleventh Grade students in an Eleventh Grade college preparatory English classroom at a co­ educational, urban/suburban public high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. 15 of the students were designated as EO and 13 were designated as either 1-FEP (2 students) or R-FEP (11 students). Data collection was via three different assignments: an expository essay, a literary analysis essay, and a multiple-choice reading comprehension test developed through the Online Assessment and Reporting System, (OARS). Results showed EO students marginally out performing 1-FEP/R-FEP students in reading comprehension and literary analysis and I-FEP/R-FEP students marginally outperforming EO students in expository writing. One salient conclusion that can drawn from this study is that the strategies used by this school district to bring English language learners to a parity with EO students is working. That 1-FEP/R-FEP students slightly outperformed their EO counterparts in expository writing may be an indication that strategies used to bring English learners to competency in expository writing could also be employed with success in teaching expository writing to EO (English Only) students