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It is well observed that in recent years an increased number of students from culturally, linguistically diverse backgrounds are enrolled in U.S. preK-12 schools. Many English language learners (ELLs) don't get a chance to learn English due to lack of English speaking home environment. In many cases their parents are unable to speak English or their family members prefer to use their native language at home for they want their children to be able to master the native language and retain their cultural heritage. Regardless, it is possible for young ELLs to master both English and their native language from a young age. It might seem that the earlier young ELL children start studying another language like English other than their native language, the easier it is for them to reach a native speaker's level in the second language acquisition. Bilingual learning improves ELLs' cognitive development as well as their self-esteem. Very often young ELLs are very proud of themselves being able to speak two languages and more knowledgeable than their peers.
However, studying two languages from a young age can put young ELLs at risk of struggling in both languages especially at the initial stage ofbilingual study and when the native language has different phonological system from English. A very common phenomenon known about ELLs is that they switch codes between the two languages and they use their native language to interpret English reading. Language delay is very often observed among young ELLs and many times ELLs have poor reading comprehension abilities. Many young ELLs struggle in English phonics, vocabulary, English grammar, story retelling, or reading comprehension questions. Since phonological knowledge has a direct impact on reading comprehension (Sparks, Patton, Ganschow, Sc Humbach, 2012), when ELLs don't have adequate phonic knowledge in English, they have a hard time pronouncing some vocabularies, which in turn affects their reading speed. More than phonics, semantics is another key in reading comprehension. Many times vocabulary plays a key role in an entire sentence. If ELLs are unable to understand the key vocabulary, they may not be able to understand the entire sentence or even the whole paragraph. However, understanding only the meaning of vocabulary is far from sufficient. Rather, ELLs also need to know American culture in...