Sixteen teachers and their 162 first-grade students participated in this study to explore the impact of book-rich classroom environments and home rereading, with and without an audio model, on reading motivation, comprehension, and fluency. Classrooms with both students who speak English as a second language and native English-speaking students were in 1 of 4 conditions: book-rich classroom environment, book-rich classroom environment and daily rereading of books at home, book-rich classroom environment and daily rereading of books with audiotapes at home, and unmodified reading instruction at school. There was enhanced comprehension for book-rich classrooms, both with and without a home component. Furthermore, home-based rereading increased students' reading motivation and promoted parental involvement. Use of audio models provided particular benefits for students learning to speak English. Schools in the United States are facing the ever-increasing challenge of educating students who do not speak English as their first language. Many second-language learners are failing to keep pace with mainstream native Englishspeaking students in educational achievement, including reading achievement (

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The purpose of this study was to investigate whether home-based repeated reading with an audio model is a significant supplement to the literacy instructional program of second-language learners. It was hypothesized that beginning firstgrade readers who spoke English as a second language would benefit from having daily access to repeated reading in their home environment. To provide this access, books that had been shared in school were given to students for daily home use. After home rereading routines were established, students were then given a tape recorder and audiotapes to accompany these books. This enabled students to hear the English storybook as they followed along looking at the printed text. Of specific interest in this study was the effect of repeated reading with an auditory model on first-grade students' reading fluency and self-monitoring behavior. Also of interest was the effect of this school/home reading activity on student reading motivation and behavior. This 19-week study employed a single-subject reversal design (ABA) with multiple baselines across individuals. Home-based repeated reading of books (A/Baseline) was compared to the home reading of books with audiotapes (B/Intervention). The study involved a single subject and four replications. Results from this study indicate that all five participating second-language learners received substantial benefit from the opportunity to practice reading books 535 536 Journal of Reading Behaviorwith audiotapes at home. It appears that the support provided by the audiotapes enabled students to fluently read increasingly more difficult texts.Data from the 1990 U.S. Census indicate that 9 million immigrant youth enrolled in U.S. public schools over the last decade. Most often they are poor and many are survivors of war, civil strife, or economic depression. Recent immigrants come from extremely diverse cultures. Asian/Pacific Islander presence in the United States increased more than 100% from 1980 to 1990, and Hispanic populations went up by more than 50% during that same period. According to the National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education (NCBE), in some of this country's largest school districts, about one of every three students is classified as a language-minority student. If school enrollment reflects population projections, the 1990 U.S. Census reveals that this figure may increase to one of every two students by the year 2000. Many of these recent immigrants lack communication skills in English and therefore have difficulty participating in school activities, particularly those related to literacy learning. The educational future of these second-language learners may well be "at risk." Since reading provides essential access to gaining information and developing independence in learning, designing educational environments which support the literacy learning of culturally and linguistically diverse students must be a high priority (Gersten & Jimenez, 1994;O'Flahavan, 1994).Traditionally, second-language learners have been taught sepa...

Abstract. Describes the development of an instrument which identifies what children who are just beginning first grade reading instruction know about the written language code and relates this knowledge to beginning reading achievement. A battery of seven tasks was developed to assess [a] discrimination of real writing from geometric shapes and letter-like forms; [b] segmentation of aurally presented sentences; (c) segmentation of visually presented sentences; (d) equation of oral written word lengths; (e) ability to predict from pictures; (f) completion of aural sentences with and without graphic cues and (g) competence with the metalinguistic aspect of reading. Tasks were administered to 53 first grade children and scores were analyzed by stepwise multiple regression on standardized reading test scores. Findings indicate that linguistic awareness tasks do predict reading achievement, particularly those tasks which stress the interrelationship between oral and written codes rather than those which tap characteristics specific to the writing system.

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