Students with or at risk of reading difficulties (RD) benefit from accurate early identification and intervention. Previous research has employed various decoding measures to screen students for RD, but the criteria for identification have been inconsistent. Assessing students with RD is especially challenging in English Language Learners (ELLs),…

According to the Simple View of Reading, decoding and linguistic comprehension are essential for reaching efficient reading comprehension. Students with Swedish as a first (L1) or second language (L2) in grades 1-3 might need special support to develop reading comprehension. In order to identify needs in reading in L1 and L2 students, the current…

This study examines the development of reading comprehension (RC) in Spanish heritage language (HL) learners in the Midwest United States. While extensive research exists on RC in monolingual English-speaking populations, applying reading science models such as the Simple View of Reading (SVR) in HL or bilingual contexts remains under-researched.…

Purpose: Most studies about reading development in second-language learners have been carried out on children exposed to the second language from kindergarten. They have shown that decoding skills develop in a similar way to those of monolingual children. We wondered whether this holds for primary school newcomer non-native-speaking children. This…

Papua has the lowest literacy rate compared to other Indonesian provinces due to its limited education access. Exacerbated by teachers' absenteeism and lack of available reading resources, improving literacy in Papua is challenging to address. Our study aims to improve students' literacy through school literacy programs. A quantitative approach…

This study examined the long-term effect of L1 reading achievement on L2 reading achievement while assessing the mediating roles of L1 print exposure and L2 aptitude measured by the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT). Structural equation modeling was used to determine the direct and indirect effects of L1 reading achievement on L2 reading…

The science of reading (SOR) refers to the sum of what we know about how people learn to read based on empirical studies across multiple disciplines. The purpose of this review was to identify research evidence to inform the SOR for multilingual learners (MLs). We reviewed 30 systematic reviews related to reading and reading instruction for MLs…

Background: South African township learners are known to perform poorly in international tests, including reading and science. Language is a complicating variable as English, the learners' second language (L2), is generally the language of learning and teaching, including for reading science texts. Aim: The study's objectives were to determine the…

Ofsted's (2021. Curriculum research review series: Languages (OCRR). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-research-review-series) sees 'phonics' as one of three key 'pillars of progression' in language learning. This paper critically examines this view, beginning with the OCRR's definition of 'phonics'. Focussing on the teaching…

Purpose: The present study aimed to systemically summarize the structural relationships among correlated components of second language (L2) reading comprehension to investigate the extent to which the two major components -- language comprehension abilities and decoding skills -- could account for reading comprehension in L2 contexts in accordance…

The aim of the current study is to expand our understanding of cross-linguistic transfer (CLT) to new languages and settings under-represented in the research literature. Empirical evidence of CLT is almost exclusively demonstrated in studies examining European and Asian languages in high-income countries. Literacy data were collected from 3561…

This study investigated the oral reading strategy use of 51 first-grade readers in a Chinese Dual-Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) programme. It attempted to answer the following research questions: (1) What reading strategies do first-grade Mandarin Chinese DLBE learners employ to decode Chinese text during oral reading? (2) Do the first-grade…

Bilingualism appears to be related to poor language and reading comprehension in the instructional language (L2). However, in the long term, an early age of second language acquisition (AoA) may produce higher levels of second language skills than a later onset of L2 exposure. Most studies on school-aged second language learners (L2 learners)…

This research compared the contributions of lexical inferencing, decoding, and listening comprehension to reading comprehension in Chinese-speaking learners of English as a second language (ESL) enrolled in university bridging programs in the U.S. and Chinese-speaking university learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in mainland China.…

This study examines the difficulty shown by Spanish-speaking university students in decoding pre-modified noun phrases (NPs) in English. NPs carry a heavy lexical and conceptual load and foreign language (L2) readers may be challenged by first language (L1) crosslinguistic influence triggered by cognate NPs. Therefore, this study also attempts to…