{"title":"Bridging to academic success: the impact of reading gains in an English bridging program on GPAs","authors":"Daniel Schmidtke, Seina Yamada, Anna L. Moro","doi":"10.1007/s11145-024-10514-x","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Although research has established that students enrolled in pre-sessional English for academic purposes (EAP) programs make gains in English reading ability, the evidence base for whether gains made during this period of instruction make a difference to future academic outcomes is nonexistent. We report a multi-cohort longitudinal study of a 28-week university-level EAP program that was designed to improve the English language skills of international students in preparation for undergraduate study. The sample comprised <i>N</i> = 405 EAL students who completed the same EAP program in a Canadian university. At the beginning and end of the EAP program students completed a battery of 12 measures, including reading comprehension, reading fluency, and other established component skills of second language reading ability. We investigated whether the change scores of these measures, as markers of skill growth, predicted the post-EAP program undergraduate grade point averages (GPAs) of these same students. The Random Forests nonparametric regression technique was used to estimate the relative importance of all change scores of the reading skill tests, as well as their scores at the beginning of the program. This method identified reading fluency change during the EAP program as a high-ranking predictor of future GPAs. Additional stepwise linear regression modelling confirmed that reading fluency change made unique significant contributions to GPAs in such a way that greater growth in this measure translated into higher GPAs. These findings suggest that reading speed development during an EAP program has a long-term and beneficial impact on the academic flourishing of EALs.</p>","PeriodicalId":48204,"journal":{"name":"Reading and Writing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Reading and Writing","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-024-10514-x","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Although research has established that students enrolled in pre-sessional English for academic purposes (EAP) programs make gains in English reading ability, the evidence base for whether gains made during this period of instruction make a difference to future academic outcomes is nonexistent. We report a multi-cohort longitudinal study of a 28-week university-level EAP program that was designed to improve the English language skills of international students in preparation for undergraduate study. The sample comprised N = 405 EAL students who completed the same EAP program in a Canadian university. At the beginning and end of the EAP program students completed a battery of 12 measures, including reading comprehension, reading fluency, and other established component skills of second language reading ability. We investigated whether the change scores of these measures, as markers of skill growth, predicted the post-EAP program undergraduate grade point averages (GPAs) of these same students. The Random Forests nonparametric regression technique was used to estimate the relative importance of all change scores of the reading skill tests, as well as their scores at the beginning of the program. This method identified reading fluency change during the EAP program as a high-ranking predictor of future GPAs. Additional stepwise linear regression modelling confirmed that reading fluency change made unique significant contributions to GPAs in such a way that greater growth in this measure translated into higher GPAs. These findings suggest that reading speed development during an EAP program has a long-term and beneficial impact on the academic flourishing of EALs.
期刊介绍:
Reading and writing skills are fundamental to literacy. Consequently, the processes involved in reading and writing and the failure to acquire these skills, as well as the loss of once well-developed reading and writing abilities have been the targets of intense research activity involving professionals from a variety of disciplines, such as neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics and education. The findings that have emanated from this research are most often written up in a lingua that is specific to the particular discipline involved, and are published in specialized journals. This generally leaves the expert in one area almost totally unaware of what may be taking place in any area other than their own. Reading and Writing cuts through this fog of jargon, breaking down the artificial boundaries between disciplines. The journal focuses on the interaction among various fields, such as linguistics, information processing, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, speech and hearing science and education. Reading and Writing publishes high-quality, scientific articles pertaining to the processes, acquisition, and loss of reading and writing skills. The journal fully represents the necessarily interdisciplinary nature of research in the field, focusing on the interaction among various disciplines, such as linguistics, information processing, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, speech and hearing science and education. Coverage in Reading and Writing includes models of reading, writing and spelling at all age levels; orthography and its relation to reading and writing; computer literacy; cross-cultural studies; and developmental and acquired disorders of reading and writing. It publishes research articles, critical reviews, theoretical papers, and case studies. Reading and Writing is one of the most highly cited journals in Education, Educational Research, and Educational Psychology.