Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Program Name/Specialization

Developmental Psychology

Faculty/School

Faculty of Arts

First Advisor

Alexandra Gottardo

Advisor Role

Professor, Psychology

Abstract

The current study examined within- and cross-language predictors of word reading and reading comprehension among groups of Arabic-English bilingual children in different language learning environments. A total of 80 children were tested, forty Arabic-English bilingual children recruited from Saudi Arabia and forty Arabic-English bilingual children were recruited from Canada. Both groups completed parallel measures of word-level reading, reading comprehension and vocabulary in Arabic and English. Results indicated that the underlying components related to within- and cross-language word reading and reading comprehension varied across groups. Within-language results demonstrate that English morphological awareness was significantly related to English word reading in both the Saudi and the Canadian groups. Vocabulary knowledge and word reading were significantly related to English reading comprehension across groups. Vocabulary knowledge was the only variable explaining unique variance in Arabic reading comprehension literary form for the Canadian group, as well as explaining unique variance in Arabic reading comprehension of the spoken form for both groups. Cross-language results demonstrate that Arabic un-vowelized word reading explained unique variance in English word reading for both groups. English phonological awareness explained a unique variance in Arabic vowelized word reading for both groups.

Convocation Year

2017

Convocation Season

Fall

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