Predictors of reading literacy for first and second language learners

In this study an attempt was made to construct a multi-factor model predicting the development of reading literacy in the upper grades of primary school in the Netherlands for subgroups of 729 first language (L1) learners and 93 second language (L2) learners. Following a longitudinal design, it was explored to what extent the variation in reading literacy development in L1 and L2 from grade 4 to grade 6 can be explained from children’s word decoding, language, mathematics and nonverbal reasoning skills, reading motivation and self confidence as well as their home reading resources. The results showed that L1 and L2 learners differed in reading literacy skills, language, mathematics, and reasoning skills. Structural equation modelling showed that the reading literacy development in both L1 and L2 learners could be explained from decoding, language, mathematics and reasoning skills, as well as their motivation and self-confidence. A striking difference was the fact that home reading resources had an impact on reading literacy in L1 learners but not in L2 learners

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

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. © 2012 UKLA

Fluency training in the ESL classroom: An experimental study of fluency development and proceduralization

The present study investigates the role of speech repetition in oral fluency development. Twenty-four students enrolled in English as a second language classes performed three training sessions in which they recorded three speeches, of four, three, and two minutes respectively. Some students spoke about the same topic three times, whereas others spoke about three different topics. It was found that fluency improved for both groups during training, but was maintained on post-tests only by the students who repeated their speeches. These students had used more words repeatedly across speeches, most of which were not specifically related to the topic. It is argued that proceduralization of linguistic knowledge represented a change in underlying cognitive mechanisms, resulting in improvements in observable fluency

Cognitive and linguistic factors in reading acquisition

Contains fulltext : 99990.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Prediction of the development of reading comprehension: a longitudinal study

Contains fulltext : 72811.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Specific effects of word decoding, vocabulary and listening comprehension abilities on the development of reading comprehension were longitudinally examined for a representative sample of 2143 Dutch children throughout the elementary school period. An attempt was made to test two theoretical frameworks for the prediction of the development of reading comprehension: the lexical quality hypothesis in which word decoding and vocabulary are assumed to be critical determinants of reading comprehension and the simple reading view in which reading comprehension is assumed to be the product of word decoding and listening comprehension. The results showed significant progress across grades on all of the predictor and criterion measures. The stability of the measures was also high across time, which shows the individual differences between students to remain across grades. Word decoding exerted a substantial effect on early reading comprehension and a small effect on later sixth grade reading comprehension. The data provide empirical support for the lexical quality hypothesis as they show knowledge of word forms and word meanings (i.e. vocabulary) to predict the development of reading comprehension. Support for the simple reading view was also found in that word decoding and listening comprehension significantly predicted reading comprehension as well. A combined structural model with word decoding, vocabulary and listening comprehension as predictors of reading comprehension showed a substantial impact of the three predictors on reading comprehension at first grade. In subsequent grades, vocabulary is still predicting reading comprehension directly whereas listening comprehension shows a reciprocal relationship with vocabulary. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd