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

TY - JOUR

T1 - Early literacy and comprehension skills in children learning English as an additional language and monolingual children with language weaknesses

AU - Bowyer-Crane, Claudine Anne

AU - Fricke, Silke

AU - Schaefer, Blanca

AU - Lervag, Arne

AU - Hulme, Charles

N1 - © The Author(s) 2016.

PY - 2017/4/1

Y1 - 2017/4/1

N2 - 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 two 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.

AB - 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 two 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.

KW - EAL

KW - Oral language

KW - Reading comprehension

KW - Word reading

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84990924145&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11145-016-9699-8

DO - 10.1007/s11145-016-9699-8

M3 - Article

C2 - 28356655

SN - 0922-4777

VL - 30

SP - 771

EP - 790

JO - READING AND WRITING

JF - READING AND WRITING

IS - 4

ER -