Ana M Taboada Barber, Uni. of Maryland, College of Education (en anglais)

Emergent Bilingual students (EBs) in the United States -and in other countries- tend to perform on grade level on word reading processes. However, scientific evidence shows that they tend to struggle with reading comprehension throughout the elementary school years. Traditionally, vocabulary instruction has been leveraged to address EBs’ needs in reading comprehension, yet this does not seem to be enough. Recent science suggests that word reading processes and language comprehension interact and are often coordinated processes that build off each other to drive and support reading comprehension. Less is known about the role of key cognitive skills that might undergird the coordination of these two key reading processes- word reading and language comprehension. Recent evidence has pointed to Executive Function (EF) skills as plausible drivers of reading comprehension and its key processes. In this presentation I draw on my research on Executive Functions in EBs and on findings about reading engagement to help shed light on how an asset-based approach to teaching EBs can help to broaden our understanding of their challenges with reading comprehension.