This short essay is a draft of the topic that will be developed for the final project and presented at the end of this course.  To start with, the topic involves a review of articles and a developed argument on the influence of second language (secondary or L2) on student performance. The thesis for the topic is ‘’Secondary language has an impact on student performance.’’ This short essay seeks to introduce the eight resource materials that will be used in developing the project with careful evaluation of each material.

First, all the eight materials will be peer reviewed journals and reports from government or education centers that have been developed on the topic of use of second language in curriculum. This will ensure the credibility of the reference materials used and the information therein.

One of the reference material that will be used is a peer reviewed journal article of a research that was done in South Africa to investigate the influence of second language in teaching Mathematics (Naude et al, 2004). The articleThe influence of second language teaching on undergraduate mathematics performance, is a dissertation that was presented in South Africa at the university of Pretoria. This material is reliable since it has been accepted and published in peer reviewed international journal

In addition, the research project will borrow a lot from reports by Tesol international association, published in Tesol Quarterly a peer reviewed journal. For those who do not have information about TESOL, it is a professional organization of teachers who teach English as a second language.  Virginia (1989 and 1992), notes there is considerable English proficiency skills impacts on of student performance in other subjects. This article remains relevant and valid considering English language continues to be a second language to most students and nothing has changed to make it any easier for student of other language backgrounds. Therefore, it can reliably be used for this project

Thirdly, the project will be enriched with information from a research done by Jamal Abedi, ‘’The no child left behind act and English language learners: Assessment and accountability issues (2004)’’to assess the effect students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) on No Child Left Act. He argues that that schools with high number of LEP students will suffer much pressure from the act (Abedi, 2004), thus underlining the impact language has on student performance. This article is reliable since it is published under peer reviewed journals and has been widely cited by other researchers.

Another article which will be referred to in developing this material is, ‘’Overlooked and underserved: Immigrant students in US secondary schools (2000)’’ by Ruiz. The authors argue that immigrant students especially from Central America countries continue to perform poorer than their US native counterparts in US secondary schools due to their low proficiency of English language (Ruiz, 2000). This article is reliable since it is peer reviewed and its contents are valid and relevant to the subject of this research.

Mclure& Taylor (2010) have written an article ‘’Pushing Back Against Push?In: ESOL Teacher Resistance and the Complexities of Co-teaching.’’ In it, the authors describe the current situation in training and the pressure English teachers have to undergo to keep pace with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) initiative by the government. This article is relevant in terms of content coverage. It can also be reliably used since it published under peer reviewed journals. It has also been widely cited in other researches..

The other resourceful material in this research is a research by Horwitz and Gregersen which focuses on the anxiety caused to students learning using second language. This material will help provide an all-round approach in evaluating the factors that influence the performance of students studying using a second language.

The last source of information will be The Impact of Second Language Acquisition and Student Achievement from Teachers’ Perspectives a dissertation by Kori Floyd published in Udine under Proquest dissertations and Theses in 2011. Kori presents a case where students who use second English language continue to be at a disadvantage even with the introduction of No Child Left campaign by the federal government. This article can be used in developing a research project since it is the writer is a known writer and the dissertation is peer reviewed.

In conclusion, this project will borrow much from the above resources. Though no single article could be sufficiently used in developing a research project, a review of the above article will in no doubt provide adequate information for this project. All the resources are valid and downloadable from the internet and peer reviewed which reinforces their validity and reliability

References

Abedi, J. (2004). The no child left behind act and English language learners: Assessment and accountability issues. Educational Researcher, 33(1), 4-14.

Collier, V. P. (1989). How long? A synthesis of research on academic achievement in a second language.TESOL quarterly, 23(3), 509-531.

Collier, V. P. (1992). A synthesis of studies examining long-term language minority student data on academic achievement.Bilingual Research Journal, 16(1-2), 187-212.

Floyd, K. T. (2011). The Impact of Second Language Acquisition and Student Achievement from Teachers’ Perspectives.Trial, 37, 00.

Gregersen, T., &Horwitz, E. K. (2002). Language Learning and Perfectionism: Anxious and Non?Anxious Language Learners’ Reactions to Their Own Oral Performance. The Modern Language Journal, 86(4), 562-570.

McClure, G., & TAYLOR, M.  (2010). Pushing Back Against Push?In: ESOL Teacher Resistance and the Complexities of Coteaching. TESOL journal, 1(1), 101-129.

Naudé, A., Engelbrecht, J., Harding, A., & Rogan, J. (2004).The influence of second language teaching on undergraduate mathematics performance (Doctoral dissertation, Masters Dissertation, University of Pretoria).

Ruiz-de-Velasco, J. (2000). Overlooked and underserved: Immigrant students in US secondary schools.