Joshua Lawrence
English vocabulary trajectories of students whose parents speak a language other than English: steep trajectories and sharp summer setback
study used individual growth modeling methods examine english wordlearning trajectories adolescent students n 278 whose parents speak english home n 210 whose parents speak language english n 68 sixth n 130 seventhgrade n 148 students attending urban middle school took part study student contributing four occasions vocabularyachievement data across three school years used group reading diagnostic evaluation grade 40item groupadministered assessment measure vocabulary achievement students also provided information amount time spent reading independently summer school year principal predictor variables included days assessments student home language student free reduced lunch status time spent independent reading dummy variable number summers experienced testing periods average middleschool students experienced loss vocabulary summer however students spoke language english home pronounced summer setback steeper learning trajectories even controlling wellknown predictors vocabulary like independent reading predictors summer loss like free reduced lunch status findings corroborate research showing lowincome students experience summer loss suggest urban schools serving mostly lowincome students homelanguage status may stronger predictor summer loss socioeconomic status reading amount