With the revamping of the Canada Immigration Act in 1985, the demographic profile of new arrivals to Canada took a marked shift to place a priority on better educated, business-class immigrants. Most of these immigrants are from the Pacific Rim, and they have high expectations for the academic achievement of their children in the Canadian school system. The purpose of this study was to look at age on arrival and first-language proficiency of these children, as these factors interact with instructed ESL support on achievement measures in grade 12. Analysis of the data reveals that although all learners benefit from structured ESL support, it is the younger-arriving ESL learners who have the most to gain, even after many years of little or no support. We note that all ESL learners, regardless of age on arrival, struggle to acquire the cultural and metaphoric competence that is beyond the linguistic threshold required for success, but nevertheless central to successful engagement in a literature-based program of studies.

IntroductionTwice a year, after the grade 12 Alberta Provincial Diploma examination results are released, high school principals are anxious to study and interpret the results as these may reflect on identified school-level issues and the school improvement plan that principals must submit to the Chief Superintendent's office each September. One day in February 1998, I received a call from the principal of the school where I was then the ESL teacher, summoning me to her office. There was an edge to her voice, forewarning me of "something up." I arrived at her office. Her desk was covered with Diploma exam results. I noticed a curious pattern of red-circled marks, all devastating failures in the English literature departmental examination and all clearly names of Chinese origin. "Are these yours?" she queried. I scanned the list, not recognizing any of them as mine. Almost instantly, I recognized the challenge ahead.About the same time, a young student from Hong Kong arrived at the door of my ESL classroom. Politely introducing himself, he indicated that he had heard that perhaps he could get some help. Now 15, he had been in Canada since grade 2. Academic work had become increasingly difficult for him. Yet he had the learning profile of an academic student, and there were family expectations for his future success. What could we do?Younger-arriving and Canadian-born ESL learners face special challenges in developing the level of English language proficiency required for academic success and university entrance. Our understanding of the patterns of second-language acquisition as this relates to youngsters' cognitive development and subsequent academic success is still in its infancy, and remains shrouded in conventionally held beliefs among educators-English as a second language (ESL) and mainstream English language teachers alike. What follows is a report of a collaborative effort between two colleagues, an ESL teacher and English department head. The purpose of this article is to unmask the myths surrounding the ease with which youngsters acquire a second language. We present the results of a three-year project that intervened in the educational trajectory of these at-risk learners by providing direct ESL support, beginning in their grade 10 year, and following them through to grade 12.We begin with background information about the shifting demographics in Canada's immigrant population, a phenomenon we believe may well be common to other provincial as well as national jurisdictions. Then we provide information relevant to second-language acquisition among young ESL learners, as well as some information about mainstream teachers' perceptions of ESL learners. To provide the reader with a context for the work we undertook, we describe our school demographics and school culture. We present the evaluation results of the January 1998 cohort of ESL learners taking the English literature course (the school-based mark and examination mark). We also present their mathematics scores. This sets the research question and th...

This study tracks the development of cognitive academic language proficiency of 47 academically competent high school ESL learners of differing age on arrival (AOA) who received instructed ESL support and one comparison group of six young arrivals who received little if any ESL support during their educational experiences. Although intake and outcome measures appear similar on the surface for all 47 students, variability in the subscores of the outcomes measure provided the catalyst for taking a closer look at progress during the ESL program. The outcomes provide a refined understanding of the development of cognitive academic language proficiency, and in particular the role of underlying proficiency and structured ESL support. The data suggest that the youngest arrivals (i.e., those aged 6-11) remain at risk in their postsecondary education. The outcomes also suggest that the acquisition of cultural capital and metaphoric competence remains a challenge for all learners.

Research in the study of students' writing concludes that vocabulary use is a key variable in determining the holistic quality of the writing. In the present study, 77 writing samples from a mixed group of Grade 3 children were analyzed for features of linguistic diversity using public domain vocabulary-profiling software. The writing was also evaluated holistically on a trait-based rubric. Data analysis identified the salient features of linguistic diversity correlating to quality standards of writing; the key is "lexical stretch" or use of low-frequency and "off-list known" words. Implications for assessment include the potential to identify children in need of vocabulary enrichment at an early stage in the educational trajectory and to track their evolving vocabulary growth in the shape of their lexical profile over time.

No abstract