Fifth-Grade Multilingual Learners’ Emotional Capital, Approaches to Learning, and Reading Achievement

Drawing on the data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 (ECLS-K:2011), this paper used structural equation modeling to investigate the relations among emotional capital (behavioral engagement, school belonging, grit, peer social support, and life satisfaction), approaches to learning, and reading achievement of 942 fifth graders who speak a home language other than English. Results first endorse the five components as indicators of emotional capital. Additionally, participants’ emotional capital is significantly associated with their fifth-grade approaches to learning, controlling for background variables, instructional variables, and previous approaches to learning. Furthermore, participants’ emotional capital significantly, directly predicts their fifth-grade reading achievement, and indirectly predicts their reading achievement through their fifth-grade approaches to learning, controlling for background variables and previous reading achievement. Finally, gender and being identified as an English Language Learner at school are significant predictors of participants’ emotional capital.