Abstract
The aim of the study was to develop a new comprehensive reading assessment battery for multi-ethnic and multilingual learners in Malaysia. Using this assessment battery, we examined the reliability, validity, and dimensionality of the factors associated with reading difficulties/disabilities in the Malay language, a highly transparent alphabetic orthography. In order to further evaluate the reading assessment battery, we compared results from the assessment battery with those obtained from the Malaysian national screening instrument. In the study, 866 Grade 1 children from multi-ethnic and multilingual backgrounds from 11 government primary schools participated. The reading assessment battery comprised 13 assessments, namely, reading comprehension, spelling, listening comprehension, letter name knowledge, letter name fluency, rapid automatized naming, word reading accuracy, word reading efficiency, oral reading fluency, expressive vocabulary, receptive vocabulary, elision, and phonological memory. High reliability and validity were found for the assessments. An exploratory factor analysis yielded three main constructs: phonological-decoding, sublexical-fluency, and vocabulary-memory. Phonological-decoding was found to be the most reliable construct that distinguished between at-risk and non-at-risk children. Identifying these underlying factors will be useful for detecting children at-risk for developing reading difficulties in the Malay language. In addition, these results highlight the importance of including a range of reading and reading-related measures for the early diagnosis of reading difficulties in this highly transparent orthography.
Highlights
Becoming literate is an essential skill to be acquired in contemporary societies
We developed a comprehensive reading assessment battery in the Malay language for children from multi-ethnic and multilingual backgrounds
We determined the dimensionality of the factors that best explained reading difficulties in the Malaysian language, a highly transparent alphabetic orthography
Summary
Becoming literate is an essential skill to be acquired in contemporary societies. Poor literacy skills can have multifaceted, devastating, and long-term consequences in relation to emotional, psychosocial, mental health, economic, and societal factors (Livingston et al, 2018). The cycles of academic struggles lead to further academic failure, psychosocial, and behavior problems as disapproval of parents, teachers, and peers regarding the school performance have an impact on the children’s feelings of inferiority and helplessness (Greenham, 1999) These risk factors of psychosocial and behavioral problems among children with reading problems are developmentally cumulative across grades starting early at preschool and primary school (Halonen et al, 2006; Giovagnoli et al, 2020). The complex contextual interaction between various individual, psychosocial, and environmental factors derive a host of internalizing and externalizing mental health problems such as depressive symptoms and disorders (Livingston et al, 2018) Internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression continues throughout childhood and adulthood partly because academic and language skills are important throughout the lifespan (Klassen et al, 2011). These issues pose a burden at the individual, family, societal, and national level in earnings, increased health expenses, and suicide prevention efforts (Livingston et al, 2018)
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