In most countries or economies participating in the PISA assessment, reading ability considerably depends on the socio-economic background of the particular child’s family and the correlating familial structure and process traits (e.g. migration background, level of formation, professional status, cultural resources, parental support, parents engagement with their children’s reading life etc.) (Baumert, Stanat & Waterman, 2006; Baumert, 2011). In recent years, research has intensively dealt with the close interdependence between difficulties in the acquisition of literacy, especially of reading skills and language proficiency. Findings concerning children with specific language impairments show that reading could improve the children’s language skills: it extends their active vocabulary, their understanding for language as well as their understanding of syntax, text structure and composition of texts (Snowling & Hulme, 2005).

Baumert, J. (2011). Expertenrat „Herkunft und Bildungserfolg“. Empfehlungen für bildungspolitische Weichenstellungen in der Perspektive auf das Jahr 2020. Berlin: Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung Berlin. Baumert, P., Stanat, P. & Watermann, R. (2006). Herkunftsbedingte Disparitäten im Bildungswesen: Differenzielle Bildungsprozesse und Probleme der Verteilungsgerechtigkeit. Vertiefende Analysen im Rahmen von PISA 2000. Wiesbaden: VS. Snowling, M. & Hulme, C. (2005). Learning to read with language impairment. In Snowling, M. J. & Hulme. C. (Eds.). The Science of Reading (pp. 397-412). Malden: Blackwell.