Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017;30(4):771-790.
doi: 10.1007/s11145-016-9699-8. Epub 2016 Oct 8.

Early literacy and comprehension skills in children learning English as an additional language and monolingual children with language weaknesses

Claudine Bowyer-Crane  1 , Silke Fricke  2 , Blanca Schaefer  2 , Arne Lervåg  3 , Charles Hulme  4
Affiliations

Early literacy and comprehension skills in children learning English as an additional language and monolingual children with language weaknesses

Claudine Bowyer-Crane et al. Read Writ. 2017.

Abstract

Many children learning English as an additional language (EAL) show reading comprehension difficulties despite adequate decoding. However, the relationship between early language and reading comprehension in this group is not fully understood. The language and literacy skills of 80 children learning English from diverse language backgrounds and 80 monolingual English-speaking peers with language weaknesses were assessed at school entry (mean age = 4 years, 7 months) and after 2 years of schooling in the UK (mean age = 6 years, 3 months). The EAL group showed weaker language skills and stronger word reading than the monolingual group but no difference in reading comprehension. Individual differences in reading comprehension were predicted by variations in decoding and language comprehension in both groups to a similar degree.

Keywords: EAL; Oral language; Reading comprehension; Word reading.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Model showing the prediction of language and early literacy at time 1 on reading comprehension and word reading at time 2 in monolingual children and EAL children (in parentheses). The model shows the standardized solution with the exception of the paths from Intervention or Waiting Control Group which show the y-standardized solution as dashed lines
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Babayiğit S. The role of oral language skills in reading and listening comprehension of text: A comparison of monolingual (L1) and bilingual (L2) speakers of English language. Journal of Research in Reading. 2014;37(S1):S22–S47. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9817.2012.01538.x. - DOI
    1. Babayiğit S. The relations between word reading, oral language, and reading comprehension in children who speak English as a first (L1) and second language (L2): A multigroup structural analysis. Reading and Writing. 2015;28(4):527–544. doi: 10.1007/s11145-014-9536-x. - DOI
    1. Babayiğit S, Stainthorp R. Preliterate phonological awareness and early literacy skills in Turkish. Journal of Research in Reading. 2007;30(4):394–413. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9817.2007.00350.x. - DOI
    1. Bercow, J. (2008). The Bercow Report: A review of services for children and young people (0-19) with speech, language and communication needs. Retrieved from http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/id/eprint/8405.
    1. Bialystok E, Majumder S, Martin MM. Developing phonological awareness: Is there a bilingual advantage? Applied Psycholinguistics. 2003;24(1):27–44. doi: 10.1017/S014271640300002X. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources