Denisse Carrasco

Major and Classification

Psychology

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Frank Manis

Department

Dornsife: Psychology

Research Gateway Project

“California’s Education Disconnect with ELL Students”

Project Abstract

A study on English language learning and language curriculum was conducted to examine if a relationship exists between reading comprehension scores, self-report language proficiency ratings, and language education type in California. In this study, participants were grouped into English only education, or if their background had any dual language support, into the bilingual education group. Data collection was done through an online questionnaire that consisted of a questionnaire and an excerpt from the Nelson Denny reading comprehension test. This study investigated whether students with a background in bilingual education would self-report as more proficient and perform higher in an English reading comprehension test. Findings partly supported the hypothesis for higher performance in the reading comprehension test in bilingual students in comparison to students with English only education. No significant main effects were found for the self-report proficiency rating in reading, writing, or speaking in comparison to their test performance. This study increases the understanding of language learning for University level students who learned English in California. Further research and larger sample size is needed to comprehend the full relationship between second language learning curriculums and proficiency levels in early adulthood and beyond.