The acquisition of grammatical skills and its relation to reading comprehension in ESL students

The present research asked whether acquisition of grammatical skills in English-as-a second-language (ESL) students best fits one of the two models of second language (L2) acquisition: The Parallel Model and The Interactive Model. The role of grammatical skills, as well as vocabulary knowledge, and phonological processing skills in reading comprehension were also examined.; Results provided strong support for the Parallel Model, suggesting that in general, ESL students acquire grammatical skills in much the same way as EL1 children. Support for the Interactive Model was weak, as differences were found only when the acquisition of individual grammatical features was examined. Still, a convergent perspective is required to explain the acquisition of grammar in ESL children. This model adopts the Parallel Model of L2 acquisition in general, but also acknowledges that language-specific L1 influence may occur in the acquisition of individual linguistic features.; Vocabulary knowledge was consistently found to be a significant predictor for grammatical skills in both ESL and EL1 groups in grades 1, 2 and 3. Both phonological awareness and phonological memory were strong predictors for EL1 children. Phonological awareness played a more important role for the Cantonese-speaking ESL students but not for the Punjabi speaking ESL children.; Results regarding reading comprehension indicated that grammatical sensitivity was a relatively strong predictor for EL1 readers but not for ESL students. Phonological awareness was the most significant predictor for reading comprehension in ESL students, whereas vocabulary knowledge was most significant in predicting reading comprehension of EL1 students. For ESL students, grammatical skills and vocabulary knowledge may be subsumed under a broad construct of language proficiency. Hence, impact from grammatical skills upon reading comprehension in ESL readers, may be indirect.; Implications for teaching ESL reading suggest the importance of phonological processing skills as well as general proficiency in language, including vocabulary knowledge and grammatical skills. Early identification and intervention of ESL students at-risk for reading difficulty may be possible by examining children's phonological processing skills and vocabulary knowledge in early primary grades.