Metacognition Matters

Revision with unchanged content. American schools are experiencing a substantial growth in the numbers of students whose primary language is other than English. These youngsters are considered English language learners (ELL). According to Van Hook & Fix (2000), these children represent about twenty percent of all U.S. students. While a number of immigrant children succeed in school, many of them do not. In particular, students of Latino and Caribbean origin are disproportionately likely to perform poorly in reading and in school. These English language learners face many obstacles because they are in the process of acquiring English as their second language but in parallel they have to learn grade-level content as well as achieve high levels of literacy in English. They are constantly challenged with the linguistic complexities of the English language as they attempt to not only master basic literacy skills including phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, vocabulary, and fluency, but to also derive meaning from academic texts. Since English language learners face the task of learning to read English as well as the academic content that English texts relate, effective instruction needs to include the development of thinking skills as well as the teaching of learning strategies that will help them do so.