ADVANCE ORGANIZERS AS AN INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY FOR BILINGUAL LEARNING DISABLED STUDENTS (READING COMPREHENSION).

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of advance organizers on the English reading comprehension of six bilingual learning disabled students. Little research has examined instructional strategies for teaching bilingual learning disabled students, a growing population in our schools. Based on research dealing with the use of advance organizers as an instructional strategy and on research in bilingual education, this study compared the effectiveness of using advance organizers on the English reading comprehension of six learning disabled students whose primary language was Spanish. An alternating treatment design was maintained. Following each treatment, the students read an expository text written in English and answered eight comprehension questions based on five levels of reading taxonomy. The number of correctly answered comprehension questions was recorded on graphs and statistically analyzed to compare the treatment conditions. In addition, the average proportion of correct responses for different levels of questions was computed and analyzed. Analyses of the data suggest that advance organizers were effective particularly when presented in the dominant language of the student. The five students who demonstrated equal or greater language proficiency in English scored higher when the English advance organizer was compared to the Spanish advance organizer. The student who demonstrated greater language proficiency in Spanish scored higher on the Spanish advance organizer. All students scored higher when the English advance organizer was used in comparison to no advance organizer. Three of the students scored higher on reading comprehension when the advance organizer was presented in Spanish as compared to no advance organizer. Students performed highest on questions at the appreciation and evaluation levels of the reading taxonomy. This study supports the body of research which suggests advance organizers are an effective instructional strategy and suggests their effectiveness with bilingual learning disabled students. This study also highlights the importance of considering students' dominant language, particularly their cognitive/academic/language proficiency, when determining the language for presentation of the advance organizer. Further research needs to systematically investigate the interrelationship between advance organizers and students' dominant language when attempting to facilitate English reading comprehension.