Transition-from-early-to-sophisticated-literacy (TESL) as a factor in cross-national achievement differences

• Published in: Australian educational researcher 2011-08, Vol.38 (3), p.329-354
• Main Authors: Galletly, Susan A., Knight, Bruce Allen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Accuracy; Achievement tests; Anglophones; Comparative Education; Contrastive Linguistics; Cross Cultural Studies; Early literacy; Education; Educational Policy and Politics; Educational Psychology; Educational Quality; Educational testing; Emergent Literacy; English; Evaluation Problems; Immigrant students; International Education; Language; Language Skills; Learning; Literacy; Low Achievement; Original Paper; Predictor Variables; Program for International Student Assessment; Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA); Readers; Reading Achievement; Reading comprehension; Reading Difficulties; Reading Fluency; Reading Skills; Secondary education; Secondary school students; Skills; Spelling; Student assessment; Teaching; Teaching and Teacher Education; Thinking Skills; Underachievement; Writing; Writing Skills; Written Language
• ISSN: 0311-6999; 2210-5328
• DOI: 10.1007/s13384-011-0031-y

The PISA studies of reading achievement of 15 year old students in OECD and partner nations show Anglophone nations to have continuing high proportions of weak readers (BLevel 2), with no improvement in this area from 2000 to 2006. The nations which have decreased their proportions of low achievers all use highly regular (transparent) orthographies, which expedite the development of efficient reading and writing skills. While international scrutiny is being focused on socio-cultural differences in education as a basis of nations' achievement differences, little consideration is currently being applied to the speed of reading accuracy and spelling development. This is surprising, given the volume of research showing that orthographic regularity significantly expedites development of reading - accuracy and spelling - with very low rates of reading difficulties in nations with highly regular orthographies. This article proposes Transition-from-early-to-sophisticated-literacy (TESL) as a variable for use when considering cross-national achievement differences. It is proposed that Complex TESL nations (including Anglophone nations) will need paradigmatically different mechanisms to those used by Resolved and Facilitated TESL nations, for improved literacy and academic outcomes by lower achievers. [Author abstract]