This study investigated potential item bias in a large-scale grade 3 reading achievement test, specifically against culturally diverse students with limited familiarity with mainstream Canadian culture. Students were classified based on their first language and length of residence in Canada, which was used as a proxy for cultural familiarity. A…

The deep cloze test was developed by Jensen and Elbro (Read Writ Interdiscip J 35(5):1221-1237, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-021-10230-w) to assess reading comprehension at the level of global situational understanding. In two independent studies, we examined potential contributors to students' scores on the deep cloze reading…

Reading is one of the most important skills in higher education. Various students show problems with reading, which can lead to problems with text decoding, reading comprehension, or both. In this study, we investigate the L1 (Dutch) and L2 (English) reading comprehension performance of students with and without dyslexia. Participants were…

Typical print formatting provides no information regarding the linguistic features of a text, although texts vary considerably with respect to grammatical complexity and readability. Complex texts may be particularly challenging for individuals with weak language knowledge, such as English language learners. This paper investigates the usefulness…

The reading literacy skills of Australian adolescents, as measured in successive PISA waves, have declined since 2000. Literacy achievement is not low by international standards, but it is lower in Australia than it is in Anglophone countries with which we compare ourselves, e.g. Canada. Using PISA 2018 and PIRLS 2021 data, we investigated both…

This study examined group differences in online reading comprehension (ORC) using student data from the 2016 administration of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (ePIRLS). An explanatory item response modeling approach was used to explore the effects of item properties (i.e., item format, text complexity, and cognitive…

The growing number of children in primary schools in Germany who have German as their second language (L2) has raised questions about the fairness of performance assessment. Fair tests are a prerequisite for distinguishing between L2 learning delay and a specific learning disability. We evaluated five commonly used reading and spelling tests for…

Glossing is a widely used and examined vocabulary learning tool, and one of the major branches of glossing research has compared the relative effects of first language (L1) and second language (L2) glosses on reading comprehension and vocabulary learning. However, the findings in this literature have not been consistent, calling for a…

In a highly multilingual country like India, challenges and opportunities arise in education and language policy. Although multilingualism is often associated with developmental advantages, Indian primary school children generally show low learning outcomes, specifically on literacy. Here we examine the influence of mother tongue education and…

This study investigates the relationship among working memory (WM), mathematics, and language, with the aim of understanding: (1) whether the functions and capacities of WM components can predict achievement in language and mathematics; and (2) whether competence in the first language (L1) and achievement in mathematics can predict success in…

Background: Previous studies show that students improve communication skills throughout post-secondary study proportionately to first-year ability, yet important questions remain. How does post-secondary affect the development of reading comprehension and related skills? How does this development vary between L1 and L2 speakers, and how much…

This study explored the effect of metacognitive reading strategy intervention in English on helping Moroccan learners reversely transfer metacognitive reading strategies from English (L3) into French (L2). In particular, it investigated whether an improvement in metacognitive reading strategy in English (L3) would lead to an improvement in reading…

The task of verifying credible and original information is now more complicated, especially for undergraduate students. This study uses information literacy and discourse analysis to develop English as a foreign language learners' critical reading skills while verifying information on social media. A reading test including false news was used to…

Gestures and other bodily movements are frequently used as instructional strategies in second language classrooms. Research has demonstrated that gestures are an effective strategy to improve L2 vocabulary recall. However, previous studies have only used vocabulary items that are known to participants in their native languages. Additionally,…

One shared goal of classroom instruction is to support students' reading competence as a key skill of school success and participation in daily life. Yet, teaching that addresses multilingual students' language-related resources to support reading is rare. In this study, we enriched reciprocal teaching with elements of linguistically responsive…