Toward a Science of Strengths‐Based Approaches to Reading for English Learners in K‐12 Schools

ABSTRACT The popular Science of Reading (SoR) movement has galvanized attention to early reading instruction with an emphasis on foundational reading skills, yet this movement is largely grounded in research focused on monolingual emergent readers. In this article, we aim to advance the science of strengths‐based reading instruction for the segment of the population of multilingual learners who stand the most to gain from enhanced learning opportunities: English learners in U.S. schools. A targeted, interdisciplinary literature review traverses three domains—across linguistic, metalinguistic, and sociocognitive skills—in which the experiences of becoming multilingual can support reading development, particularly in the upper elementary grades and beyond, when increasingly sophisticated literacy practices rely on deep reading comprehension. The synthesized studies illustrate how multilingual experiences can buoy deep reading comprehension by giving rise to cross‐linguistic transfer, metalinguistic awareness, social perspective taking, and other supportive mechanisms. To encourage continued advances in research and practice, we situate the lessons of the review among two complementary models of reading and discuss the importance of refining research within the science of reading to include a wider range of participants and a clearer focus on falsifiable hypotheses. Ultimately, we call for a SoR movement that recognizes the different strengths students bring to reading and that champions instruction that builds on those strengths, for all students.