LEvidence - Inquiry Question 1

Summarise the challenge of student learning you plan to focus on in this inquiry. Be as clear and specific as you can about the evidence you have about this to date.

The extremely low level of reading comprehension skills in my year 10 English language (EL) cohort is a real challenge to their learning. This low level is evident in their performances in three different reading comprehension tests used to measure their
proficiency. This challenge implies impacts on the success of their learning in all learning areas. This is the challenge I want to focus my inquiry on.

English reading comprehension in this inquiry adopts the revised 'simple view' model which basically defines it as having 3 components - decoding (the ability to pronunce words fluently while reading printed texts), language comprehension (ability to understand spoken English), and vocabulary knowledge (Tunmer & Chapman, 2011).

The New Zealand curriculum expects year 9 students to enter secondary school with curriculum level 4 in reading. By year 10, they are expected to read at curriculum level 5. These expectations are to ensure that these learners can access and meet the demands of the curriculum in all learning areas.

It is evident in the performance of English language learners (ELLs) in my inquiry group that they read at curriculum levels far below the expected levels for their peers. The evidence will be specifically shown below.

This challenge can be explained by what research shows about learning of English by ELLs in New Zealand. Depending on their age, ELLs can take between 5 - 10 years to learn the English language before they are considered competent (Haynes, 2007; Cummins, 2000; ERO, 2018).