Vocabulary, Morpho-Syntactic Skills, and Home Literacy Activities as Predictors of Reading Comprehension in Greek–English Bilingual Children
A Semi-Longitudinal Study
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19487523 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Theodora Papastefanou (0000-0001-5056-9658, Cyprus University of Technology, corresponding author), Theodoros Marinis (0000-0002-4120-3141, University of Konstanz, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 97 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Languages (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/languages11050097 |
| OpenAlex | W7162527221 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 81 |
The present study aimed to investigate the performance of bilingual/biliterate children on expressive vocabulary and morpho-syntactic skills and the extent to which home literacy activities (HLA) contribute to primary school Greek–English bilingual children’s performance on reading comprehension. Forty children attending Years 1 and 3 at an English primary school in the UK were assessed in language and decoding skills. After one school year, they were assessed in oral language skills, decoding, and reading comprehension in Years 2 and 4. The children performed better on all tasks at Time 2 than at Time 1, and the older children performed better than the younger ones. Their performance was better in the English tasks than in the Greek tasks. Greek morpho-syntactic skills and HLA were significant predictors of Greek reading comprehension, suggesting that children may use their morpho-syntactic knowledge to support their reading comprehension in their heritage language. Moreover, heritage language exposure through HLA can benefit literacy of the heritage language
Comprehension · Heritage language · Literacy · Neuroscience of multilingualism · Reading (process) · Reading comprehension · Vocabulary · Language Development and Disorders · Reading and Literacy Development · Second Language Acquisition and Learning
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |