Effects of German reading skills and bilingualism on early learning of English as a foreign language in primary school children

The present study investigates how reading fluency in German, and monolingual versus bilingual language background influence the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) in primary school. Data of 83 monolingual and bilingual children with varying degrees of German reading skills (including c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Reading & writing 2021-12, Vol.34 (10), p.2673-2689
Main Authors: Maurer, U., Jost, L. B., Pfenninger, S. E., Eberhard-Moscicka, A. K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bilingualism
Children
Comparative Analysis
Correlation
Dyslexia
Education
Elementary School Students
English (Second Language)
English as a second language
English as a second language learning
Fluency
Foreign language learning
German
German language
Language and Literature
Learning transfer
Linguistics
Literacy
Monolingualism
Native language acquisition
Neurology
Psycholinguistics
Reading ability
Reading comprehension
Reading Difficulties
Reading Fluency
Reading Skills
Risk
Second Language Instruction
Second Language Learning
Social Sciences
Student Characteristics
Transfer of Training
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The present study investigates how reading fluency in German, and monolingual versus bilingual language background influence the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) in primary school. Data of 83 monolingual and bilingual children with varying degrees of German reading skills (including children with dyslexia) were analyzed after they had learned EFL for 1 year. The results showed that lower German reading fluency—but not bilingualism—was associated with poorer English skills. The results suggest that risk factors leading to poor reading skills (including dyslexia) also negatively impact foreign language learning.
ISSN:0922-4777
1573-0905
DOI:10.1007/s11145-021-10166-1