Case studies of Turkish children's literacy and oral language development in English as a second language

This study examined the English oral and literacy acquisition of two Turkish speaking first graders in the United States who were in the process of receiving formal literacy instruction in the two languages for the first time.; Fieldnotes and audio- or video-recordings documented the students' oral and literacy performance and instruction in their mainstream, ESL and Turkish classrooms. Interviews about the students' language and literacy abilities were conducted with the teachers, parents and students, and written work were collected. The students participated in additional summer language and literacy tasks in each language.; Qualitative analysis resulted in the following themes for their English acquisition: use of languages, listening comprehension and oral production, strategies of language learning and communicating, spoken vocabulary comprehension and production, grammar development, classroom reading and writing, task reading and writing, and reflections on language and literacy in the two languages. The interview and written documents were analyzed according to the above themes, and the Turkish data were analyzed for their native language and literacy development, code-switching and metalinguistic comments. Case studies of each child were developed, and a cross-case analysis was conducted.; Alp's oral English developed earlier than Zehra due to his prior kindergarten experience in the United States. Both used formulaic phrases, engaged in language play, hypothesized about the new language, and code-mixed. The development of English grammatical structures was parallel in their speaking, reading and writing. Their language production was higher in the ESL context than the mainstream, and they demonstrated metalinguistic awareness of their two languages only in the Turkish context.; Both students demonstrated use of reading strategies. Unfamiliarity with vocabulary and genre seemed to hinder their comprehension, and the expository text was more difficult for them. The students' English oral language and literacy abilities showed a negative relationship, where oral proficiency did not lead to literacy acquisition in the second language. Alp lacked phonological awareness, over-relied on word memorization strategies and remained a poor reader and writer in both languages. Prior experience with metalinguistic tasks in Turkish seemed to provide Zehra with the skills necessary for initial literacy acquisition in both languages.