Abstract
The acquisition of reading skills of 100 monolingual English and 100 bilingual Zulu-English third-grade learners was investigated by measuring their phonological- and reading skills. Little research exists on how the presence of a spoken-only Zulu (L1) could influence the English (L2) reading acquisition process. PA tasks were correlated with reading measures in English as an L1 and L2, but significant differences were found on all of the measures; implying overall support for use of PA measures for reading achievement in L1 English monolinguals and in the English (L2) of bilingual children, but with the understanding that L1 Zulu spoken proficiency and L2 English-only instruction influences the underlying repertoire of PA skills used for L2 English reading acquisition, different from that of the L1 English reading acquisition process. The implications of these findings for L2 reading development and using phonological measures across cultural-linguistic groups, for educational purposes, are discussed
Highlights
The acquisition of reading skills of 100 monolingual English and 100 bilingual ZuluEnglish third-grade learners was investigated by measuring their phonological- and reading skills
A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) between phonological processing and word reading and reading comprehension measures demonstrated that performance across these constructs was significantly different for the EL1 and EL2 groups (Wilks’ Lambda (F(5,191) = 6.55, p < .001)
For both groups of learners, reading comprehension demonstrated a higher effect size (1.20) than word reading (.96), with the degree of difference being greater for the EL2 than for the EL1 group
Summary
The acquisition of reading skills of 100 monolingual English and 100 bilingual ZuluEnglish third-grade learners was investigated by measuring their phonological- and reading skills. PA tasks were correlated with reading measures in English as an L1 and L2, but significant differences were found on all of the measures; implying overall support for use of PA measures for reading achievement in L1 English monolinguals and in the English (L2) of bilingual children, but with the understanding that L1 Zulu spoken proficiency and L2 English-only instruction influences the underlying repertoire of PA skills used for L2 English reading acquisition, different from that of the L1 English reading acquisition process The implications of these findings for L2 reading development and using phonological measures across cultural-linguistic groups, for educational purposes, are discussed. It develops and is enhanced by children’s exposure to literacy instruction, and is linked to literacy achievement, because it reflects sound-analysis skills that underlie reading and spelling (Ehri et al, 2001; Hulme & Snowling, 2009)
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