The relationship between reading skills in early English as a foreign language and Hungarian as a first language

Abstract

In recent years, similarly to other educational contexts in the European Union and other parts of the world, early foreign language programs have become widely spread in Hungary. This article looks into the relationship between Hungarian learners’ reading skills in English as a foreign language (L2) and in their first language (L1) Hungarian. We analyze data from two quantitative cross-sectional studies to explore how they interact. In the first one, participants were representative samples of Hungarian students ( n > 4700 in Grade 6 and n > 3900 in Grade 8; age 12 and 14, respectively). Besides their proficiency in reading comprehension in L2, their reading skills were also tested in the mother tongue. The other study involved a representative sample of eighth graders ( n = 247) in one particular county of Hungary (Baranya). This enquiry tapped into learners’ proficiency in reading comprehension in English and in Hungarian, but besides reading, their listening comprehension and writing skills were also assessed in the two languages. Both studies found evidence for the interdependence hypothesis: a close relationship was found between L1 and L2 performances. However, relationships between L2 skills proved to be stronger than those between L1 and L2 as well as between L1 skills.