Could an Interactive-Balanced Environment for Reading Acquisition Overcome the Triad Risk Factors: Low Socioeconomic Status, Low Literacy Skills and Language Properties?

Abstract

A large number of the scientific efforts that have investigated the issue of Arabic language acquisition have mainly focused on the implication of its Diglossic nature and orthographic complexity in reading acquisition. However, the interplay of the two factors and low-socio economic background was not addressed sufficiently. The current study follows the progress in literacy skills among atlinguistic risk Arabic native speaking kindergarten children throughout 2nd grade, and assesses its impact on reading and writing acquisition in a Diglossic context. Twenty-five at literacy risk children and 181 heterogeneous children (resembling the heterogeneity of Socioeconomic Status (SES) and literacy background in regular classes) took part in the study. The effects of an interactive-balanced reading and writing learning program were evaluated. Children were assessed both at the end of kindergarten and at the beginning of 2nd grade in the following domains: discourse, listening comprehension, phonology, morphology, syntax and vocabulary. In the post-test, reading measures were included. The results of the study indicate that the learning program succeeded in bridging the gaps in literacy skills between the at-risk children and their heterogeneous peers. However, lower performance was observed in reading measures among the former.