Date of Award
8-26-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Education
Department
Education
Program
Literacy
Capstone Instructor
Brian Boothe
Second Reader
Theresa Marty
Keywords
English Language Learner (ELL), reading comprehension, vocabulary, multilingual, proficiency
Abstract
This paper analyzed current research on English Language Learners’ (ELL) understanding anduse of vocabulary as it applies to reading comprehension in kindergarten through sixth grade.This topic is discussed through research findings that consider multilingual students’ language backgrounds and experiences, academic language development, reading interventions, vocabulary development, reading strategies, and primary-language-to-English transfer. Research indicates that students learning English as an additional language benefit from consistent, structured vocabulary instruction and from making connections to targeted words through morphology, syntactic awareness, and social interaction. Also, these students showed improvement in reading comprehension with modeled support from educators who encouraged L1-to-L2 language transfer skills. While some studies suggested improvements among ELL students who received structured-literacy-based interventions and lessons, test results often showed only small gains in reading comprehension compared with English-only peers for students who received interventions for shorter periods. Further longitudinal research is necessary to understand how much time ELL students need to derive the full benefit ofvocabulary instruction for improved reading comprehension.