One of the most frustrating things about the current state of the SLIFE literature is the scarcity of quantitative studies on the subject. That is why I was so excited when I came across this Slideshare of a presentation given by Christopher Browder at the "Understanding Language Learning Among Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE )" colloquium at the AAAL 2014 Convention, Portland, Oregon last March. Christopher has collected and analyzed data about the English proficiency gains and academic achievement of 199 adolescent English Language Learners along with a variety of risk factors and protective factors which might have influenced their learning. Included in these risk factors were those related to limited formal education.
In this presentation, Browder focuses on the relationship between high school students' previous formal schooling backgrounds and their gains on English Proficiency tests. His analysis suggests that SLIFE tended to have lower English proficiency later on because they had arrived with lower English proficiency, not because of slower rates of learning English. In fact, students’ grade-relative years of schooling was not significantly associated with English gains. He did find, however, that arriving with lower academic skills, as indicated by their math skills and first language (L1) literacy, was significantly associated with lower English gains. He recommends giving math and L1 literacy tests during intake of new English Language Learners because these results will be more reliable predictors of their rate of English learning than their grades completed of school prior to intake.
These findings supported my suspicion that the quantity of a student's prior education is often less important to their future academic success than the quality of that instruction. Many of the students that I have worked with over the years have had several years of education through home or church-run programs that are not directed primarily towards preparing students for secondary or post secondary academics. If they did spend time the in public education systems in Canada or the United States, it was often fragmented by frequent moves or characterized by emphasis on skill remediation. Despite having attended school for the expected number of years, they have not received the education needed to be successful at higher level academic tasks. It was good to know that this pattern was not specific to my (mostly Low German Mennonite) students. It raised my curiosity as to what other findings may have come out of this research.
This Slideshare presentation really piqued my interest, and so I tracked down Christopher's email address to ask him if this research had been published. He generously sent me a copy of his write-up from the AAAL conference (which is available online behind a pay-wall) as well as a write-up for a presentation he made at the 2013 LESLLA symposium (which was not yet available online at the time of this blog post). He also shared his PhD dissertation (which is available online through ProQuest). There is a lot more in these documents than what I have discussed above, and I believe that some of his findings are very significant to the field. I will be be sharing them here as I get the chance.
