Examining the generalisability of the simple view of reading comprehension for emergent bilinguals

Abstract

Reading comprehension depends on oral language competence and word reading ability, as per the simple view of reading. While this theory has been studied in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic contexts, its applicability in different educational settings characterized by multilingualism, a lack of explicit reading instruction, and the challenges of poverty (as in South Africa) remains under-explored. We use secondary data from approximately 263 emergent bilinguals (approximately one-quarter isiZulu-English, three quarters Siswati-English) from the Second Early Grade Reading Study intervention. Participants completed tests of word reading fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension in both of their school languages. Using within-language path models, we examine the effects of word reading fluency and vocabulary on reading comprehension and explore whether these relations differ by first language group or intervention group. Thus, we tease out the role of the language and educational context in influencing the skills related to reading comprehension in first language and English additional language.