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Early Decoding Speed and Later Reading Competencies in Children with German as a Second Language

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Abstract

In Germany, 35 % of children under the age of five have a migration background. Many of them acquire German as a second language (GSL). Until today, little is known about the development of early reading skills in these children. The aim of the present study was to compare the development of decoding speed and reading comprehension from Grade 1 to Grade 3 in GSL and native German speaking children. The study especially focused on children who showed poor decoding speed in Grade 1. Results indicated an increase in the achievement gap in measures of reading comprehension between the two language groups. In decoding speed, GSL children showed a tendency toward improving less than their native German speaking peers. In Grade 1 as well as in Grade 3, a large proportion of GSL children showed reading performances which placed them in the lowest 15 % of the test norms: At each of the measurement points, the proportion of GSL poor decoders and GSL poor reading comprehenders was twice as high as expected by test norms and substantially higher than in native German speaking children. Furthermore, results indicated that the discrepancy between measures of nonverbal intelligence and reading performance is not a reliable indicator for specific reading disabilities in GSL children.

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Notes

  1. The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) indicates the proportion of total variance of reading performances, nonverbal intelligence and German language proficiency that is located between school classes. The higher the ICC is, the more similar is the performance of pupils in the same class. In our sample, the ICC ranged between ICC = 0.02 and ICC = 0.15. However, with an average cluster size of 11.826, the design effect was only greater than 2 for two of six outcomes (decoding speed and reading comprehension in Grade 1). Thus, group composition explains additional variance regarding these variables. Multilevel analyses conducted with MPlus, however, indicated that the hierarchical data structure does not effect the relation between language group composition (German speaking and GSL) and reading performance (class-specific variance: z ≤ 1.346, p ≤ 0.178). Moreover, further multilevel analyses, which take the class level into account, revealed identical results as regular ANOVAs.

  2. We also conducted an ANOVA with repeated measures on decoding speed in which children with below-average language proficiency (according to teachers’ ratings) were excluded. Results indicated that GSL children with at least average language proficiency and native German children improved in a comparable way across time F(1,396) = 2.3, p = 0.13, η 2 = 0.01. Native German speaking children scored at a higher level than GSL children F(1, 396) = 5.1, p < 0.05, η 2 = 0.01. Additional t-tests indicated that GSL children showed lower decoding speed than native German speaking children in Grade 3 t(396) = 2.4, p < 0.05. In Grade 1, this effect failed to reach significance level t(396) = 1.5, p = 0.14.

  3. We also conducted an ANOVA with repeated measures on reading comprehension in which children with below-average language proficiency (according to teachers’ ratings) were excluded. Results indicated that GSL children with at least average language proficiency and native German children improved in a comparable way across time F(1,396) = 1.7, p = 0.20, η 2 = 0.00. The main effect of group indicated that native German speaking children scored at a higher level than GSL children F(1, 396) = 5.5, p < 0.05, η 2 = 0.01. Additional t-tests indicated that there was a tendency towards lower performance of the GSL children in Grade 1 t(396) = 1.7, p = 0.08. This effect yielded significance level in Grade 3 t(396) = 2.1, p < 0.05.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Hessian initiative for the development of scientific and economic excellence (LOEWE) and by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; SO 469/2-1).

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  1. German Institute for International Educational Research, Schloßstraße 29, 60486, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Dagmar Duzy & Jan-Henning Ehm

  2. University of Münster, Münster, Germany

    Elmar Souvignier

  3. University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Andreas Gold

  4. Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk (IDeA), Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Jan-Henning Ehm & Andreas Gold

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Duzy, D., Souvignier, E., Ehm, JH. et al. Early Decoding Speed and Later Reading Competencies in Children with German as a Second Language. Child Ind Res 7, 787–804 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-014-9242-x

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