Supporting Emergent Bilinguals' Reading in the Content Areas

Abstract

Situated in sociocultural theories of language and literacy, the authors describe an approach to teaching nonfiction text to emergent bilinguals (EBs) through the strategic use of a reading protocol. The protocol focuses on where reading text is positioned in a learning sequence and how students engage with these texts. Classroom transcripts are used to illustrate how the approach supports EBs to engage productively with nonfiction texts. The authors suggest three key considerations for supporting EBs' productive reading of nonfiction texts. These considerations highlight the equity issues inherent in providing and scaffolding access to these texts for this group of students.