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Reading comprehension of monolingual and bilingual children in primary school: the role of linguistic abilities and phonological processing skills

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Abstract

Reading comprehension in bilingual children depends on the extent to which each language is used in daily life. To date, most bilingual studies have focused on children who learn the majority language as their second language (L2 bilingual children). In contrast, bilingual children learning the majority language as their first language (L1 bilingual children) have rarely been addressed. To bridge this gap, this study explored (a) mean differences in reading comprehension and its preschool predictors as well as (b) differential associations between these variables for children from different language groups. The study included 1,842 monolingual, 269 L1 bilingual, and 237 L2 bilingual children from the German National Educational Panel Study who were assessed on their reading comprehension in grade 4 of elementary school. Preschool predictors of reading included linguistic abilities and phonological processing skills that were obtained in kindergarten. The results indicate that after accounting for the children’s socioeconomic background, L2 bilingual children exhibited lower reading comprehension and linguistic skills than L1 bilingual children, who in turn were outperformed by monolingual children. In contrast, phonological processing skills were comparable across groups. Furthermore, the three language groups presented similar relationships between reading comprehension and its preschool predictors.

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Acknowledgements

This paper uses data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS): Starting Cohort Kindergarten, https://doi.org/10.5157/NEPS:SC2:8.0.1. From 2008 to 2013, NEPS data was collected as part of the Framework Program for the Promotion of Empirical Educational Research funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). As of 2014, NEPS is carried out by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) at the University of Bamberg in cooperation with a nationwide network.

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  1. Department of Developmental Psychology and Center for Psychological Innovation and Research, Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Padjadjaran, Jatinangor, Indonesia

    Shally Novita

  2. Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, Bamberg, Germany

    Kathrin Lockl & Timo Gnambs

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  1. Shally Novita
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Shally Novita. Padjadjaran University, Jl. Raya Sumedang Jatinangor KM 21, 45,363 West Java, Indonesia. E-mail: shally.novita@hotmail.de.

Current themes of research

Shally Novita: Development of reading. Reading disabilities. Home learning environment. Parents’ and teachers’ judgments of cognitive competences.

Kathrin Lockl: Development of metacognition. Self-regulated learning. Relationship between language and metacognitive development. Competence development.

Timo Gnambs: Methods of large-scale assessment and survey research. Longitudinal measurement models. Meta-analysis. Technology-based psychological assessment.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education

1. Shally Novita

Novita, S., Uyun, Q., Witruk, E. Siregar, J. (2019). Children with dyslexia in different cultures: Investigation of anxiety and coping strategies of children with dyslexia in Indonesia and Germany. Annals of Dyslexia 69, 204–218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-019-00179-5

2. Kathrin Lockl

Freund, M.-J., Wolter, I., Lockl, K., & Gnambs, T. (2021). Determinants of profiles of competence development in mathematics and reading in upper secondary education in Germany. PLoS ONE, 16(10): e0258152. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258152

Weinert, S., Artelt, C., Prenzel, M., Senkbeil, M., Ehmke, T., Carstensen, C. H. & Lockl, K. (2019). Development of competencies across the life course. In H.-P. Blossfeld & H.-G. Roßbach (Eds.), Education as a Lifelong Process (pp. 57-81). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

3. Timo Gnambs

Freund, M.-J., Wolter, I., Lockl, K., & Gnambs, T. (2021). Determinants of profiles of competence development in mathematics and reading in upper secondary education in Germany. PLoS ONE, 16(10): e0258152. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258152

Gnambs, T. (2021). The development of gender differences in information and communication technology (ICT) literacy in middle adolescence. Computers in Human Behavior, 114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106533

Thums, K., Gnambs, T., & Wolter, I. (2020). The impact of gender-stereotypical text contents on reading competence in women and men. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 23, 1283-1301. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-020-00980-8

Heyne, N., Artelt, C., Gnambs, T., Gehrer, K., & Schoor, C. (2020). Instructed highlighting of text passages – Indicator of reading or strategic performance?. Lingua, 236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2020.102803

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Novita, S., Lockl, K. & Gnambs, T. Reading comprehension of monolingual and bilingual children in primary school: the role of linguistic abilities and phonological processing skills. Eur J Psychol Educ 37, 993–1013 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-021-00587-5

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