Predictors of listening and reading comprehension in multilingual and monolingual children: do text type and modality matter?

The overall aim of this project is to provide new evidence on the predictors of listening and reading comprehension in primary school children across the multilingual-monolingual continuum. The contribution will be two-fold: to a theoretical understanding of comprehension as a function of language experience in both multilinguals and monolingual children, and to sustainable pedagogical recommendations for teachers who work with children with different levels of English language experience and proficiency.

Primary schools in England have become increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse with 20% of pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL) (DfE School Census - January 2023). The percentage of leaners with EAL is considerably higher in London and in other large cities where multilingual learners are now the majority in many schools.

While multilingualism is an asset, learning to understand and read English at the same time as having to learn the curriculum poses a challenge to the learners and to their teachers. We know that English proficiency - particularly in listening and reading comprehension - is key to school outcomes. However, current understanding of the oral language skills that predict listening and reading comprehension in multilingual learners is still sparse in the UK context and generally limited to narrative fiction texts.

Nevertheless, it is through information-rich expository texts that children learn subject-specific knowledge (e.g. history or science). In this project we will identify key predictors of language comprehension in primary school children as a function of: language experience along the multilingual-monolingual continuum

modality (listening vs. reading) type of text (narrative vs. expository).

Language experience has typically been operationalised as a binary category (monolingual vs. bilingual/multilingual), and yet language experience is best captured as a continuum. Some speakers have exclusive exposure and use of one language and are truly monolingual. For multilinguals the variation in relative exposure and use in their languages can be very wide.

We will collect detailed information on children's language and literacy experiences to better understand the relationship with comprehension.

Few studies have so far investigated both listening and reading comprehension in multilingual learners in UK primary schools. We will investigate the relationship between the oral and the written modality in this group of learners given the fundamental importance of listening comprehension for reading comprehension.

Finally, no studies have yet assessed listening and reading comprehension of expository texts in multilingual and monolingual learners. We will include information-rich expository texts in this study as they are the medium through which children learn about subjects like history or maths. This project is important and timely for three main reasons:

Theoretical relevance: A clearer picture of predictors of listening and reading comprehension will contribute to a better integrated developmental model of language comprehension across the multilingual-monolingual continuum.

Inclusivity: Knowing more about language comprehension in multilingual children will contribute to reducing educational inequalities. Including monolingual children is equally important to maintain representation across the whole school population.

Expected pedagogical impact: teachers will benefit from research-informed expectations of learners with very different language and literacy experiences - both multilingual and monolingual. This will put them in a better position to adapt their teaching to more individualised learning for all pupils.