Session Information
31 SES 01, Reading and Spelling - Comparative Approaches
Paper Session
Contribution
Reading comprehension is one of the most important academic abilities, as everyday school life nearly always involves the comprehension of written language. Acquisition of reading comprehension is based on linguistic and cognitive abilities (Cain, Oakhill, & Bryant, 2004). For example, reading comprehension is closely linked to language abilities, such as vocabulary knowledge (e.g. Bialystok, 2007).
These abilities, however, are not sufficiently explaining children’s reading comprehension (Katzir et al., 2006). As linguistic and cognitive abilities only partly explain reading comprehension, various home context variables (i.e. socioeconomic and sociocultural background) have become important predictors to be considered when analysing students’ reading achievement (e.g. PIRLS: Mullis, Martin, Foy, & Drucker, 2012). Research has shown that aspects of the socioeconomic and sociocultural background influence the children’s reading comprehension (Silva, Verhoeven, & van Leeuwe, 2010). In order to operationalise the socioeconomic background, in numerous large-scale-assessments (e.g. PISA: Baumert & Schümer, 2001), the socioeconomic status of a family has been defined by the parents’ employment and their profession which then is often assigned to a value (between 16 and 90) referring to the ISEI (International Socio-Economic Index of Occupational Status: Ganzeboom, de Graaf, Treiman, & de Leeuw, 1992). Even though socioeconomic factors are closely linked to sociocultural factors, they need to be considered separately (Baumert, Watermann, & Schümer, 2003). Families with similar socioeconomic backgrounds can differ in their sociocultural resources (Ehmke & Siegle, 2005). When mentioning sociocultural factors, one frequently refers to the term “cultural capital” which is based on Bourdieu’s theory (Bourdieu, 1983). By way of example, the number of books at home and the parents’ highest education are used as indicators for sociocultural resources (e.g. PIRLS: Mullis et al., 2012).
Besides socioeconomic and sociocultural background, the language spoken at home is another important home context factor influencing the children’s reading abilities. Research has shown that second language learners (L2) lag behind their first language (L1) peers in reading acquisition (Snyder & Dillow, 2013). Netten et al. (2010) have shown that in the Netherlands both L1 and L2 learners’ reading comprehension can be explained by various variables (decoding, language, mathematics, reasoning skills, motivation and self-confidence). Interestingly, home reading resources had only an impact on L1 learners and not on L2 learners (Netten, Droop, & Verhoeven, 2010). Results like this show that (i) numerous factors need to be considered in research concerning L1 and L2 learners and that (ii) in L1 and L2 learners’ development, different learning preconditions might occur and ought to be considered.
In the present study, following research questions ought to be answered:
1. Do L1 and L2 learners differ in their socioeconomic (parents’ employment) and sociocultural (number of books, parents’ highest education) resources?
2. Do L1 and L2 learners differ in their reading (reading comprehension) and language (receptive vocabulary, grammar) abilities at the beginning of Grade 2 and 3, respectively?
3. Does the predictive power of language abilities, socioeconomic and sociocultural resources on reading comprehension differ between L1 and L2 learners’ in second and third grade?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Baumert, J., & Schümer, G. (2001). Familiäre Lebensverhältnisse, Bildungsbeteiligung und Kompetenzerwerb. In J. Baumert et al. (Eds.), PISA 2000. Basiskompetenzen von Schülerinnen und Schülern im internationalen Vergleich (p. 323-407). Opladen: Leske & Budrich. Baumert, J., Watermann, R., & Schümer, G. (2003). Disparitäten der Bildungsbeteiligung und des Kompetenzerwerbs. Ein institutionelles und individuelles Mediationsmodell. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 6(1), p. 46-71. Bialystok E. (2007). Acquisition of Literacy in Bilingual Children: A Framework for Research. Language Learning, 57(1), 45–77. Bourdieu, P. (1983): Ökonomisches Kapital, kulturelles Kapital, soziales Kapital. In R. Kreckel (Ed.), Soziale Ungleichheiten (p. 183-198). Göttingen: Schwartz. Cain, K., Oakhill, J., & Bryant, P. (2004). Children’s reading comprehension ability: Concurrent prediction by working memory, verbal ability, and component skills. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 31–42. Ehmke, T., & Siegle, T. (2005). ISEI, ISCED, HOMEPOS, ESCSIndikatoren der sozialen Herkunft beid er Quantifizierung von sozialen Disparitäten. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 8(4), 521-540. Esser, G., Wyschkon, A., Ballaschk, K., & Hänsch, S. (2010). Potsdam-Illinois Test für Psycholinguistische Fähigkeiten - P-ITPA. Göttingen: Hogrefe, Testzentrale. Ganzeboom, H.B.G., de Graaf, P.M., Treiman, D.J. & de Leeuw, J. (1992). A Standard International Socio-Economic Index of Occupational Status. Social Science Research, Vol. 21, 1-56. Glück, C.W. (2007). Wortschatz- und Wortfindungstest für 6- bis 10-Jährige (WWT 6-10). München: Elsevier. Katzir, T. et al. (2006). Reading fluency: The whole is more than the parts. Annals of Dyslexia, 56, 51–82. Lenhard, W., & Schneider, W. (2006). Ein Leseverständnistest für Erst- bis Sechstklässler (ELFE 1-6). Weinheim: Beltz. Mullis, I.V.S., Martin, M.O., Foy, P., & Drucker, K.T. (2012). PIRLS 2011 International Results in Reading. Chestnut Hill: Boston College Netten, A., Droop, M., & Verhoeven, L. (2011). Predictors of reading literacy for first and second language learners. Reading and Writing, 24, 413-425. Silva, S.M., Verhoeven, L., & van Leeuwe, J. (2010). Socio-cultural variation in reading comprehensiondevelopment among fifth graders in Peru. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 24, 951-969. Snyder, T.D., & Dillow, S.A. (2013). Digest of Education Statistics 2012 (NCES 2014-015). National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, DC: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
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