Thesis (Master in Education in Curriculum and Teaching) -- Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Puerto Rico.

Bibliography: leaves [35]-41.

"In general, reading comprehension is the holistic process of constructing meaning from written text through the interaction of the knowledge the reader brings to text, word recognition ability, world knowledge, and knowledge oflinguistics conventions; the reader's interpretation of the language that the writer used in constructing the text; and the situation in which the text is read (Maria, 1990). Cook (2001) explained that the first language has been used in different methods where they alternate the language. The first language has been used to convey meaning, explain grammar, organize the class and students can use it as part of collaborative learning and individual strategy use. Finally, Cook indicates that the first language can be very useful to create authentic second language users rather than something to be avoided. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of using the native language Spanish, in the reading comprehension in English of high school level English language learners from Puerto Rico. The research design is quasi-experimental. The sample was 37 students of tenth grade of a high school in the south of Puerto Rico. They were divided in two groups, the Experimental (16) and the Control group (17). A Reading Comprehension Pre and Post Test were designed by the researcher to evaluate the students' reading comprehension. The skills that were tested are part of the Curriculum Framework, these are the elements of poetry: metaphor, alliteration, simile, rhythm, repetition, rhyme, personification, and imagery. The test included fifteen items. These items were divided in seven multiple choice questions on the elements of poetry and vocabulary words from the elements. The findings reveal that there was no effect in the use of the native language, Spanish, in the reading comprehension of English language learners from high school level. The results of the pre-test and post-test demonstrated no significant difference in the reading comprehension scores of Puerto Rican English language learners who used the native language in learning vocabulary in the second language reading compared to Puerto Rican English language learners who did not use the native language in learning vocabulary in the second language reading".

Bibliographical reference according APA style manual (6th ed.): Rivera Polanco, E. (2014). The use of the native language in the second language reading comprehension at a public high school in the south of Puerto Rico (Unpublished master thesis). Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico, Ponce.

Research design: Quasi-experimental with a quantitative approach.