Reading comprehension predictors and interventions for bilingual adolescents : a review of best practices

English language learners (ELLs) comprise a large and growing portion of the United State’s school population. Many ELLs experience difficulty acquiring English reading comprehension. These deficits grow larger as students age due to the Matthew effect and can contribute to significant difficulty accessing the educational environment. This review addresses the skills that contribute to reading comprehension outcomes to identify the key predictors of reading comprehension outcomes for bilingual adolescents. Vocabulary, syntax, and facility in managing cross-linguistic factors emerge as the linguistic skills most directly correlated to reading comprehension abilities. This review concludes by addressing best practices in intervention within these three areas to identify evidence-based approaches to mediate reading comprehension deficits in adolescent ELLs.