ABSTRACT The population of emerging bilinguals (EBs) is rapidly growing across the United States leaving many teachers wondering how best to teach these students to read and write effectively in English. Concurrently, and as a result of the Common Core State Standards, elementary school students are required to produce more sophisticated writing than ever before. For example, all students in Grades K-5 are expected to write an opinion essay that requires an understanding of the topic in order to generate an opinion and the ability to craft evidence to support this opinion. The purpose of this study was to determine how EBs develop as writers of opinion essays. A multiple case study was conducted in a 4th grade English as a Second Language classroom where students (N = 6) were taught to write opinion essays in English. Data sources included interviews, classroom observations, and multiple student writing and work samples that were conducted and collected over the course of six weeks. Three specific categories emerged from the data including: (a) a more knowledgeable other, (b) the need for two-step graphic organizers, and (c) the value of partner talk/collaboration. Implications and recommendations of these findings are provided for both educators and researchers.

中文翻译：

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探索四年级新兴双语者如何学习撰写意见论文

摘要 美国新兴的双语 (EB) 人口正在迅速增长，这让许多教师想知道如何最好地教这些学生有效地阅读和写作。同时，作为共同核心州标准的结果，小学生被要求写出比以往任何时候都更复杂的写作。例如，K-5 年级的所有学生都应该写一篇意见文章，需要理解主题才能产生意见，并有能力制作证据来支持这一意见。本研究的目的是确定 EB 如何发展为意见论文的作者。一项多案例研究在 4 年级英语作为第二语言的课堂上进行，学生 (N = 6) 被教导用英语撰写意见论文。数据来源包括访谈、课堂观察以及在六周内进行和收集的多个学生写作和工作样本。数据中出现了三个特定类别，包括：(a) 知识渊博的其他人，(b) 需要两步图形组织者，以及 (c) 合作伙伴谈话/协作的价值。为教育工作者和研究人员提供了这些发现的启示和建议。