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The contribution of general language ability, reading comprehension and working memory to mathematics achievement among children with English as an Additional Language (EAL)
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https://www.unboundphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/EAL_and_educational_achievement2_0.pdf
The deteriorating performance of Filipino students in the national and international mathematics tests for the last decade has become a major challenge to Philippine education. The Department of Education attributed this problem to students’ poor reading comprehension. Previous studies showed varied findings on the association between variables in reading and mathematics. The present study utilized the six elements of reading comprehension skills to determine their relationship to students’ performance in mathematics. A total of 666 students belonging to the randomly selected first year classes from 18 public and private high schools were taken as sample. A correlation research design was used and a competency-based achievement tests in reading comprehension and mathematics were the research instruments. Students in private schools performed better in reading comprehension skills and mathematics than their counterparts. While reading comprehension skills were insignificantly correlated to private school students’ mathematics performance, the case is different in public schools wherein three skills namely understanding vocabulary in context, getting main idea, and making inference surfaced to have connection with mathematics. The overall students’ reading comprehension skills were not significantly correlated to mathematics performance. Hence, the poor mathematics performance could be explained by other factors not related to reading comprehension skills. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v2i1.1803 Full Text: PDF
Many factors influence children's performance in mathematical achievement, including both domain-specific and domain-general factors. This study aimed to verify and compare the effects of two types of training on early numerical skills. One type of training focused on the enhancement of working memory, a domain-general precursor, while the other focused on the enhancement of early numeracy, a domain-specific precursor. The participants were 48 five-year-old preschool children. Both the working memory and early numeracy training programs were implemented for 5 weeks. The results showed that the early numeracy intervention specifically improved early numeracy abilities in preschool children, whereas working memory intervention improved not only working memory abilities but also early numeracy abilities. These findings stress the importance of performing activities designed to train working memory abilities, in addition to activities aimed to enhance more specific skills, in the early prevention of learning difficulties during preschool years.
This study aimed to investigate the interplay between mathematical word problem skills and reading comprehension. The participants were 225 children aged 9-10 (Grade 4). The children's text comprehension and mathematical word problem-solving performance was tested. Technical reading skills were investigated in order to categorise participants as good or poor readers. The results showed that performance on maths word problems was strongly related to performance in reading comprehension. Fluent technical reading abilities increased the aforementioned skills. However, even after controlling for the level of technical reading involved, performance in maths word problems was still related to reading comprehension, suggesting that both of these skills require overall reasoning abilities. There were no gender differences in maths word problem-solving performance, but the girls were better in technical reading and in reading comprehension. Parental levels of education positively predicted children's maths word problem-solving performance and reading comprehension skills.
Short‐term memory has often been found to play a major role in children's arithmetical skills. However, Bull and Johnston (1997) found that when differences in reading skills were controlled for, short‐term memory, specifically the functioning of the articulatory loop, did not represent a fundamental deficit for children of low mathematical ability. This study examined the role of other working‐memory mechanisms in arithmetical skills, namely the central executive, using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and the visual‐spatial sketch pad, using the Corsi Blocks. Results showed that children of high and low mathematics ability differed significantly on WCST measures after controlling for differences in reading ability and IQ but did not differ in visual sequential memory. Correlation analyses revealed a significant correlation between arithmetic performance and perseveration measures from the WCST. The implications of this result are discussed in terms of central‐executive functioning and related cognitive and behavioral difficulties.
The role of working memory (WM) in children's growth in mathematical problem solving was examined in a longitudinal study of children (N = 127). A battery of tests was administered that assessed problem solving, achievement, WM, and cognitive processing (inhibition, speed, phonological coding) in Grade 1 children, with follow-up testing in Grades 2 and 3. The results were that (a) Grade 1 predictors that contributed unique variance to Grade 3 word problem-solving performance were WM, naming speed, and inhibition and (b) growth in the executive component of WM was significantly related to growth in word problem-solving accuracy. The results support the notion that growth in the executive system of WM is an important predictor of growth in children's problem solving beyond the contribution of cognitive measures of inattention, inhibition, and processing speed as well as achievement measures related to calculation and reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article reports on the results of a longitudinal investigation of the reading development of a sample of 824 children (406 girls, 418 boys). The sample included 689 native English-speaking (L1) children and 135 English-language learners (ELLs) representing 33 different native languages. In kindergarten and 4th grade, children's word reading, spelling, phonological processing, syntactic awareness, and working memory skills were assessed with standardized and experimental measures. In addition, word reading was assessed from kindergarten through 4th grade, and reading comprehension in 4th grade. Comparisons of reading skills between the ELLs and the L1 speakers demonstrated that despite slightly lower performance of the ELLs on several kindergarten tasks, differences at 4th grade were negligible. Fourth-grade word reading was predicted by the same kindergarten tasks for both language groups, and prediction of reading comprehension differed by only 1 task. Finally, the trajectory of word reading was nonlinear for both groups, although predictors of this trajectory differed between groups. The findings suggest that early identification models established through research with L1 speakers are appropriate for identifying ELLs at risk for reading difficulties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
It is argued that bilingual students should not be categorized as a unidimensional group. Their level of competence in each language is important if academic activity is considered. As an example of this, results from the present study indicate that Papua New Guinea bilingual students competent in both their languages scored significantly higher on two different types of mathematical tests compared to collegues who had low competence in their languages. Further, there was some indication that bilingual students competent in both languages performed better than monolingual students, even though the monolingual students attended schools that had many more teaching resources. Such results were seen as support for the new Papua New Guinea govemment policy of using students' original languages in school. The use of the students' original languages may also open the way for easier access to traditional mathematical concepts in classrooms.
A simple view of reading was outlined that consisted of two components, decoding and linguistic comprehension, both held to be necessary for skilled reading. Three predictions drawn from the simple view were assessed in a longitudinal sample of English-Spanish bilingual children in first through fourth grade. The results supported each prediction: (a) The linear combination of decoding and listening comprehension made substantial contributions toward explaining variation in reading comprehension, but the estimates were significantly improved by inclusion of the product of the two components; (b) the correlations between decoding and listening comprehension tended to become negative as samples were successively restricted to less skilled readers; and (c) the pattern of linear relationships between listening and reading comprehension for increasing levels of decoding skill revealed constant intercept values of zero and positive slope values increasing in magnitude. These results support the view that skill in reading can be simply characterized as the product of skill in decoding and linguistic comprehension. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the simple view for the practice of reading instruction, the definition of reading disability, and the notion of literacy.
The relations between short-term memory, working memory, inhibitory control, and arithmetic word problem solution were studied in children who were poor in arithmetic problem solving (n = 23). The children were compared with a group of good problem solvers (n = 26), matched for vocabulary, age, and gender. The results corroborate the hypothesis of poor problem solvers' general deficit in inhibitory processes. They had lower scores and made more intrusion errors in a series of working memory tasks requiring inhibition of irrelevant information. The results showed that problem solving performance is related to the ability of reducing the accessibility of nontarget and irrelevant information in memory. Span tasks that imply passive storage of information showed that poor problem solvers were impaired when they have to retain numerical information, but they did not differ from children who did not have difficulty with mathematics when the material included words.
The study investigates the relationship between memory updating and arithmetic word problem solving. Two groups of 35 fourth graders with high and low memory-updating abilities were selected from a sample of 89 children on the basis of an updating task used by Palladino et al. [Memory & Cognition 29 (2002) 344]. The two groups were required to solve a set of arithmetic word problems and to recall relevant information from another set of problems. Several span tasks, a computation test, and the PMA verbal subtest were also administered. The group with a high memory-updating ability performed better in problem solving, recalling text problems, and in the computation test. The two groups did not differ in the PMA verbal subtest or in the digit and word spans. Results were interpreted as supporting the importance of updating ability in problem solving and of the substantial independence between memory updating and problem solving on one hand and verbal intelligence on the other.
This paper reports some of the more frequent language changes in Panjabi, the first language of bilingual Panjabi/English children in the West Midlands, UK. Spontaneous spoken data were collected in schools across both languages in three formatted elicitation procedures from 50 bilingual Panjabi/English-speaking children, aged 6–7 years old. Panjabi data from the children is analysed for lexical borrowings and code-switching with English. Several changes of vocabulary and word grammar patterns in Panjabi are identified, many due to interaction with English, and some due to developmental features of Panjabi. There is also evidence of pervasive changes of word order, suggesting a shift in Panjabi word order to that of English. Lexical choice is discussed in terms of language change rather than language deficit. The implications of a normative framework for comparison are explored. A psycholinguistic model interprets grammatical changes in Panjabi.
Poor comprehenders are children who show significant deficits in their reading comprehension performance, despite average, or above-average word reading ability. To date, there have been no in-depth studies of the mathematical performance profiles of such children.
This study aimed to explore the mathematical profiles of poor comprehenders. Given that language impairment is associated with difficulties with mathematics, and that poor comprehenders tend to have oral language weaknesses, we hypothesized that poor comprehenders would show relative weaknesses in aspects of mathematical performance.
From a sample of 109 children aged 7-8 years, we selected 14 poor comprehenders and 14 controls with age-appropriate reading comprehension ability. The groups were matched on non-verbal ability, multiple measures of reading accuracy, and chronological age.
We compared the performance of the group of poor comprehenders with that of the matched controls on two standardized measures of mathematical ability, one measuring procedural arithmetic prowess and the other tapping higher-level mathematical reasoning.
Although there were no group differences in performance on the arithmetic measure, the poor comprehenders showed significantly lower scores than the controls on the mathematical reasoning task. The poor comprehenders exhibited impaired verbal ability relative to controls, with these differences in verbal ability associated with the group differences found on the test of mathematical reasoning.
Poor comprehenders' deficits are not limited to the domain of literacy; their underlying profile of impairments also seems to selectively impact on certain components of mathematical ability.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the construct stability and diagnostic validity of a standardised computerised tool for assessing working memory: the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA). The purpose of the AWMA is to provide educators with a quick and effective tool to screen for and support those with memory impairments. Findings indicate that working memory skills in children with memory impairments are relatively stable over the course of the school year. There was also a high degree of convergence in performance between the AWMA and the WISC-IV Working Memory Index. The educational implications are discussed.
A procedure for assessing children's recall of lexical items in the presence of a competing language task is described. The Competing Language Processing Task was designed to reflect the dynamic processes carried out in working memory during language comprehension and production by requiring that the subject hold words in temporary storage while analyzing and responding as true or false to statements. The development of the procedure is described and results of testing of 68 normal children ages 6, 8, 10, and 12 years are presented.
The relationship among working memory, mathematic ability, and the cognitive impairment of children with difficulties in mathematics was examined. A group of children with difficulties in mathematics (MD) was compared with a group of children with a normal level of achievement matched for vocabulary, age, and gender (N = 49). The children were required to perform a variety of working memory and short-term memory tasks that had been administered 1 year previously. Moreover, the children were asked to perform tasks designed to provide information about speed of articulation. The results suggest a general working memory deficit in children with MD, specifically in the central executive component of Baddeley's model and primarily in the ability to inhibit irrelevant information. However, the MD children were not impaired in speech rate and counting speed tasks, which mainly involve the role of the articulatory loop.
Sometimes what we say or what we intend to say is not understood by those with whom we are speaking. In classrooms where a specialized vocabulary and structure of communication are necessary for academic success, teachers must be aware of any factors that might impede students' success. In mathematics, for example, language is the primary medium for constructing, sharing, and expanding ideas. Being both proficient with and understanding mathematical language in the form of vocabulary, symbols, expressions, definitions, and so on, are important. Therefore, it is critical for mathematics teachers to consider problems that students might be having with the language of mathematics.
The acquisition of early mathematical knowledge is critical for successful long-term academic development. Mathematical language is one of the strongest predictors of children's early mathematical success. Findings from previous studies have provided correlational evidence supporting the importance of mathematical language to the development of children's mathematics skills, but there is limited causal evidence supporting this link. To address this research gap, 47 Head Start children were randomly assigned to a mathematical language intervention group or a business-as-usual group. Over the course of eight weeks, interventionists implemented a dialogic reading intervention focused on quantitative and spatial mathematical language. At posttest, students in the intervention group significantly outperformed the students in the comparison group not only on a mathematical language assessment, but on a mathematical knowledge assessment as well. These findings indicate that increasing children's exposure to mathematical language can positively affect their general mathematics skills. This study is an important first step in providing causal evidence of the importance of early mathematical language for children's general mathematical knowledge and the potential for mathematical language interventions to increase children's overall mathematics abilities.
This study’s hypotheses were that (a) word-problem (WP) solving is a form of text comprehension that involves language comprehension processes, working memory, and reasoning, but (b) WP solving differs from other forms of text comprehension by requiring WP-specific language comprehension as well as general language comprehension. At the start of the 2nd grade, children (n = 206; on average, 7 years, 6 months) were assessed on general language comprehension, working memory, nonlinguistic reasoning, processing speed (a control variable), and foundational skill (arithmetic for WPs; word reading for text comprehension). In spring, they were assessed on WP-specific language comprehension, WPs, and text comprehension. Path analytic mediation analysis indicated that effects of general language comprehension on text comprehension were entirely direct, whereas effects of general language comprehension on WPs were partially mediated by WP-specific language. By contrast, effects of working memory and reasoning operated in parallel ways for both outcomes.
This study compared the reading and oral language skills of children who speak English as a first (L1) and second language (L2), and examined whether the strength of the relationship between word reading, oral language, and reading comprehension was invariant (equivalent) across the two groups. The participants included 183 L1 and L2 children (M = 9; 7 years, SD = 3.64 months) in England. As anticipated, there was a significant L1 advantage for oral language (i.e., vocabulary, verbal working memory, sentence repetition) and reading comprehension but not for word reading. Findings from the multigroup structural analysis indicated that the strength of relationships between oral language and reading was relatively invariant across the two groups. Oral language was the strongest predictor of reading comprehension levels in both groups. Finally, the weaker English oral language skills explained the lower performance of L2 learners on reading comprehension. Together the results underscored the importance of supporting oral language development in minority language learners.
This article explores a number of key issues that emerged during the panel discussion that followed the General Language Proficiency Symposium at the Language Testing Forum (LTF) 2010, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the LTF. The key issues that emerged during the discussion should be of interest to a wider audience, as they express current issues and concerns in the testing community in light of 30 years of research and development. These issues were whether language proficiency can be seen as unitary or divisible; the role and use of the Common European Framework (CEF) proficiency scales and levels when it comes to reporting test scores; the issue of test equivalence between high-stakes tests, also in relation to the CEF; and a general demand for developing assessment literacy among test users and stakeholders. Based on a summary of the LTF discussion, the article provides a state-of-the art review of relevant research that addresses the aforementioned listed key issues, followed by a future agenda for researching the reviewed areas.
In most school subjects, students' comprehension of what they read is crucial, as is improving that comprehension. In this article, we review studies on the effects of interventions on reading comprehension. A simple view of reading sees reading comprehension as the product of linguistic comprehension and decoding skills, while an augmented view also emphasizes domain general cognitive skills (e.g., working memory, auditory processing). Studies that target skills directly related to reading comprehension through strategy training show moderate to large effects. In studies that target reading comprehension through the underlying components (i.e., decoding, linguistic comprehension, and domain-general cognitive skills), training decoding has the largest effect on standardized tests of reading comprehension (small to moderate effects). Studies targeting linguistic comprehension have mixed results, highlighting the need for more randomized controlled trials that measure effects on reading comprehension. Finally, domain general interventions show little promise in terms of effects on reading comprehension.
The study examined the role of oral language skills in reading comprehension and listening comprehension levels of 125 monolingual (L1) and bilingual (L2) English-speaking learners (M = 121.5 months, SD = 4.65) in England. All testing was conducted in English. The L1 learners outperformed their L2 peers on the measures of oral language and text comprehension, but the two groups performed at comparable levels on word-reading accuracy and speed. Oral language, indexed by vocabulary and morphosyntactic skills, emerged as the most powerful unique predictor of both reading and listening comprehension levels. Although there was a tendency of oral language to be more strongly related to L2 reading comprehension, its relationship with listening comprehension was comparable across the two language groups. Finally, individual differences in oral language skills emerged as the primary factor that explained the language group differences in text comprehension levels. Educational implications of these findings were discussed.
This book is based on the authors' research and is designed to help teachers understand mathematical concepts and how children come to appreciate them.
To clarify the role of decoding in reading and reading disability, a simple model of reading is proposed, which holds that reading equals the product of decoding and comprehension. It follows that there must be three types of reading disability, resulting from an inability to decode, an inability to comprehend, or both. It is argued that the first is dyslexia, the second hyperlexia, and the third common, or garden variety, reading disability.
This study investigates the relationship between skills that underpin mathematical word problems and those that underpin numerical operations, such as addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Sixty children aged 6–7 years were tested on measures of mathematical ability, reading accuracy, reading comprehension, verbal intelligence and phonological awareness, using a mix of standardised and experimenter-designed tests. The experimental hypothesis was that mathematical word problems will call upon cognitive skills that are different and additional to those required by numerical operations, in particular verbal ability and reading comprehension, while phonological awareness and reading accuracy will be associated with both types of mathematical problems. The hypothesis is partly affirmed and partly rejected. Reading comprehension was found to predict performance on mathematical word problems and not numerical operations, and phonological awareness was found to predict performance on both types of mathematics. However, the predictive value of verbal ability and reading accuracy was found to be non-significant.
What C-tests actually measure has been an issue of debate for many years. In the present research, the authors examined the hypothesis that C-tests measure general language proficiency. A total of 843 participants from four independent samples took a German C-test along with the TestDaF (Test of German as a Foreign Language). Rasch measurement modelling and confirmatory factor analysis provided clear evidence that the C-test in question was a highly reliable, unidimensional instrument, which measured the same general dimension as the four TestDaF sections: reading, listening, writing and speaking. Moreover, the authors showed that language proficiency was divisible into more specific constructs and that examinee proficiency level differentially influenced C-test performance. The findings have implications for the multicomponentiality and fluidity of the C-test measurement construct.
This article reports on the results of a research programme carried out to validate the C-test amongst Hungarian EFL learners. One hundred and two university English majors were administered four different language tests (including an oral interview) to form a General Language Proficiency measure against which the C-test was evaluated. Various analyses were made, partly to replicate the results of the earlier studies to see to what extent these could be generalized, and partly to shed light on controversial issues. The same C-test was then administered to four groups of secondary school pupils (N=53) to examine whether the findings amongst university students were also true in another proficiency range. The results of the programme confirmed that the C-test is a reliable and valid instrument, and detailed information was obtained about issues such as text difficulty and text appropriateness, the role of content and structure words, and the use of different scoring methods.
Working memory is currently a 'hot' topic in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Because of their radically different scopes and emphases, however, comparing different models and theories and understanding how they relate to one another has been a difficult task. This volume offers a much-needed forum for systematically comparing and contrasting existing models of working memory. It does so by asking each contributor to address the same comprehensive set of important theoretical questions on working memory. The answers to these questions provided in the volume elucidate the emerging general consensus on the nature of working memory among different theorists and crystallize incompatible theoretical claims that must be resolved in future research. As such, this volume serves not only as a milestone that documents the state-of-the-art in the field but also as a theoretical guidebook that will likely promote new lines of research and more precise and comprehensive models of working memory.
This report describes research in progress at Duisburg University on a modification of the cloze principle in language testing. Four problem areas in classical cloze tests are isolated and discussed, namely, text selection, test construction, scoring, and interpretation. The "C-tests" in the process of development use the theoretical basis underlying the classical cloze procedure, that is, the concept of an internalized grammar which is utilized in all language operations. The C-tests in English and German were developed according to the following criteria: (1) shorter texts producing at least 100 items; (2) no problems in choice of deletion rate and starting point; (3) deletions should be an absolutely representative sample of the elements of the text; (4) it should not favor examinees with special knowledge; (5) only exact scoring should be used; and (6) native speakers should obtain virtually perfect scores. Tests have been tried with native speakers and second language learners of both German and English. In the C-test, every second word is omitted; the first half of the deleted word is left standing. Examinees must supply the missing parts of the words and only correct restorations are counted as right. The current state of the research shows that the C-test has satisfactory test qualities for both first and second language learners. (AMH)
In this study we investigated the importance of language in student test performance on mathematics word problems. Students were given released items from the National Assessment of Educational Progress mathematics assessment, along with parallel items that were modified to reduce their linguistic complexity. In interviews, students typically preferred the revised items over the original counterparts. Paper-and-pencil tests containing original and revised items were administered to 1,174 8th grade students. Students who were English language learners (ELLs) scored lower on the math test than proficient speakers of English. There were also differences in math performance with respect to socioeconomic status (SES) but not gender. Linguistic modification of test items resulted in significant differences in math performance; scores on the linguistically modified version were slightly higher. Some student groups benefited more from the linguistic modification of items-in particular, students in low-level and average math classes, but also ELLs and low SES students.
ABSTRACTS
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the development of and interrelations between the language proficiencies and reading abilities of children learning to read in either a first language or a second language. The authors compared the reading‐comprehension, word‐decoding, and oral‐language skills of both high and low SES Dutch third and fourth graders to the skills of low SES minority third and fourth graders from a Turkish or Moroccan background living in the Netherlands. Several tests of reading comprehension, word decoding, oral text comprehension, morphosyntactic knowledge, and vocabulary knowledge were administered at the beginning of third grade, the end of third grade, and the end of fourth grade. The results showed the minority children to be faster decoders than the Dutch low SES children. With respect to reading comprehension and oral language proficiency, however, the minority children were found to lag behind the Dutch children in all respects. With respect to the interrelations between oral‐language skills and reading skills, the development of reading comprehension was found to be influenced more by top‐down comprehension‐based processes than by bottom‐up word‐decoding processes for both the first‐ and second‐language learners. The oral Dutch skills of the minority children played a more prominent role in the explanation of their reading‐comprehension skills than the oral‐language skills of the Dutch children, however.
The present study sought to clarify the relations amongst serial decoding, irregular word recognition, listening comprehension,
facets of oral vocabulary and reading comprehension in two cohorts of children differing in reading level. In the process,
the components of the simple view of reading were evaluated. Students in grades 1 (n=67) and 6 (n=56) were assessed on measures of phonological awareness, decoding, irregular word recognition, listening comprehension,
oral vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Even when all other measures were controlled, vocabulary was found to explain
reading comprehension in grade 6 but not grade 1. Vocabulary also predicted decoding in grade 6 and irregular word recognition
in both grades. These results are interpreted as supporting a not-so-simple view of the constructs underlying reading comprehension
that acknowledges complex connections between print skills and oral language.
This study investigated the hypothesis that the contributions of oral language comprehension (C) and word recognition (D) to reading comprehension (R) in the simple view of reading (SVR) are not independent because a component of C (vocabulary knowledge) directly contributes to the variance in D. Three analysis procedures (hierarchical regression analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling) were used to analyze data obtained from a sample (N = 122) of 7-year-old students who were administered tests of vocabulary knowledge, nonword reading, word recognition (two standardized tests), and parallel forms of listening and reading comprehension. Results from the regression analysis indicated that vocabulary made a contribution to R beyond that made by word recognition and listening comprehension; results from the exploratory factor analysis showed that two factors (Decoding and Linguistic Comprehension) were extracted, with vocabulary and listening comprehension loading highly on the Linguistic Comprehension factor; and results from structural equation modeling revealed that the latent construct, C, influenced R not only directly but also indirectly through the latent construct, D.
Many children who speak English as an additional language (EAL) underachieve in areas of English literacy, especially in the primary years. These difficulties are often attributed to low levels of English language fluency as they enter the education system. In an effort to provide a greater understanding of this underachievement, the cognitive-linguistic factors underlying literacy development in monolingual children and children learning EAL were examined in a three-year longitudinal project. The project, conducted in schools in the north of England, followed the developmental progression of forty-three children learning EAL and forty-three monolingual children from school years Two to Four. Children were assessed on measures of reading accuracy, reading and listening comprehension, receptive and expressive vocabulary, and reception of grammar. Analysis revealed similarities between the two groups of children on reading accuracy, but children learning EAL had lower levels of vocabulary and comprehension at each point in time. Data are discussed in terms of the development of underlying language skills and the impact of these skills on both reading and listening comprehension. The implications of the findings for classroom practice are considered.
Data from national test results suggests that children who are learning English as an additional language (EAL) experience relatively lower levels of educational attainment in comparison to their monolingual, English-speaking peers.
The relative underachievement of children who are learning EAL demands that the literacy needs of this group are identified. To this end, this study aimed to explore the reading- and comprehension-related skills of a group of EAL learners.
Data are reported from 92 Year 3 pupils, of whom 46 children are learning EAL.
Children completed standardized measures of reading accuracy and comprehension, listening comprehension, and receptive and expressive vocabulary.
Results indicate that many EAL learners experience difficulties in understanding written and spoken text. These comprehension difficulties are not related to decoding problems but are related to significantly lower levels of vocabulary knowledge experienced by this group.
Many EAL learners experience significantly lower levels of English vocabulary knowledge which has a significant impact on their ability to understand written and spoken text. Greater emphasis on language development is therefore needed in the school curriculum to attempt to address the limited language skills of children learning EAL.
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A Systematic Review of Intervention Research Examining English Language and Literacy Development in Children with English as an Additional Language (EAL)
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The Age Factor and L2 Reading Strategies
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