Rompiendo el Silencio: Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Peer-Mediated Learning at Improving Language Outcomes for ELLs

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This article reports the results of a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of peer-mediated learning for English language learners. Peer-mediated learning is presented as one pedagogical tool with promise for interrupting a legacy of structural and instructional silencing of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Oral language (n = 13) and written language (n = 28) outcomes were analyzed, and main effects analyses indicate that peer mediation is highly effective at promoting both oral (g = .578, p = .000) and written language (g = .486, p = .000). A number of moderator analyses were conducted, and study-quality variables were the most important moderators across outcome types. Importantly, qualitative analysis of moderator variables provides tentative evidence that peer-mediation was more effective the more that students' L1 was used for instruction, and ELLs performed better in unsegregated environments where they had both language support services and access to native-English-speaking peers.