oa The effects of a book-based program on literacy development of Arab children learning English as a second language

Studies on effective instructional strategies for developing biliteracy skills have been limited. Investigation of child biliteracy acquisition across cultures and contexts have even a lesser share in the literature. This article reports a study which explored how a shared reading program can develop aspects of children's second language reading. The study focused on the potential gains of sharing big books and modelling reading behaviour (shared reading)and using guided reading on young second langue learners (7-10 years of age) . The areas of potential development were reading accuracy and reading comprehension of L2 texts. 36 children of Arabic L1 were divided into two groups : an experimental group and a control group. The intervention lasted for four weeks. Children in the experimental group read graded children's books with the researcher in small groups . The control group were given no intervention apart from their regular ESL classes. Statistical analysis of children's attainment at pre- and post- tests of the two measures show that the children in the experimental group developed significantly compared to the control group. Although it is acknowledged that the intervention was not compared to another instructional program; the significance of the study lays in emphasising the role of direct instruction in the teaching of L2 reading in child SLA.