Reading and Arithmetic Achievement in Primary Years for Students from Non-English-Speaking Families: A Seven-Year Longitudinal Comparison

Abstract

Students from seven schools, some from English-speaking ( N = 226) and some from non-English-speaking ( N = 60) families, were tested for reading achievement in Years 1, 2, 3 and 6, and for mathematics achievement in Year 6. Students from non-English-speaking families achieved significantly poorer reading results than those from English-speaking families, and these differences were consistent and stable across Years 1–6. Longitudinal analyses suggested that the effect occurred primarily in Year 1; students from non-English-speaking families achieved lower reading scores in subsequent school years but their lower scores could be explained by their poor reading skills in earlier school years. The language group differences were quite specific to reading skills, and the two groups did not differ in mathematics achievement in Year 6. The specificity of the group achievement differences to language and reading skills suggests that home language may be an important determinant of early reading, and that early reading is in turn the primary determinant of subsequent reading performance. All students in the present investigation who performed poorly on reading tests in Year 1, no matter what the cause and no matter what the home language, were very likely to perform poorly on reading tests through all primary school years.