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…

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…

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…

We investigated the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in the unfolding of vocabulary and text-comprehension skills in language minority bilingual children, who are educated exclusively in their L2. For comparison, a monolingual control group was also tested, consisting of children of the same age and schooling. We administered a synonyms task to…

Reading and comprehending the mother tongue is one of the most important basic academic skills required for the meaningful and significant learning of every subject, especially in earlier stages of education. Though National Policy Frameworks strongly advocate an integrated approach to the teaching of different skills of language, the school does…

Background: According to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS, 2006 with 87%, 2011 with 82%, 2016 with 78%, 2021 with 81%), an international reading comprehension assessment conducted at the Grade 4 level, South African learners perform very poorly in reading comprehension, even when reading in their African home languages.…

This action research study aimed to improve reading with understanding in a lower primary classroom in Fiji. Five emergent readers were selected through an examination of class running records. Peer observation, student worksheets, and class running records were utilized to collect data. The data analysis revealed that when teachers implement…

In the present study, we aimed to compare reading-writing relations between first-grade Native English Speakers (NESs) and English Language Learners (ELLs). Thirty-four ELLs and 35 NESs completed measures of receptive and expressive vocabulary, lexical-level reading (word reading) and writing (spelling), and discourse-level reading (reading…

Syntax, or sentence structure, plays a role in reading comprehension, but how students draw on their awareness of syntax in their reading remains unclear; the mechanism is even more ambiguous in bilingual students. In this study, we evaluated the direct and indirect contributions of syntactic awareness on first-language Chinese and second-language…

We leverage log data from an educational app and two-way text message records from over 3,500 students during the summers of 2019 and 2020, along with in-depth interviews in Spanish and English, to identify patterns of family engagement with educational technology. Based on the type and timing of technology use, we identify several distinct…

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of text comprehension activities based on the standards of textuality on reading skill, reading comprehension, and reading habit. To reach necessary competence in skill areas in a proper process, the child needs to be provided with sufficient activities starting from early ages. It is evident…

We leverage log data from an educational app and two-way text message records from over 3,500 students during the summers of 2019 and 2020 and in-depth interviews in Spanish and English to identify patterns of family engagement with educational technology. Based on the type and timing of technology use, we identify several distinct profiles of…

This study investigated the correlation and predictive capacity of verbal working memory (VWM) to the reading comprehension of children in their first language (L1) and second language (L2). The term verbal working memory refers to a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can hold and manipulate verbal and auditory information temporarily.…

Previous research on cross-linguistic transfer has provided evidence about the transfer of reading performance and strategies. However, little knowledge exists regarding how motivational factors (e.g. self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation [IM], extrinsic motivation [EM]) transfer and how they facilitate the transfer of reading from the first…

In the current study, we investigated the role of executive functions in explaining how word recognition and language comprehension jointly predict reading comprehension in multilingual and monolingual students (Grades 1 and 2). Specifically, mediation and moderation models were tested and compared to offer a more nuanced understanding of the role…