The contributions of language and literacy skills to mathematical performance in children learning English as an additional language

In recent years, research has demonstrated that children learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) show a weakness in reading comprehension, and its underlying language comprehension skills, relative to children whose first language is English (FLE). Despite this, relatively little attention has been paid to how this disadvantage might affect performance in other areas of education, such as mathematics. Indeed, national performance data from England shows a mathematical achievement gap between EAL and FLE children. A growing body of research has suggested that EAL children struggle with mathematical word problem solving relative to their FLE peers, given its reliance on reading comprehension. However, research seeking to clarify the relationships between linguistic abilities and mathematical performance in EAL and FLE children within the UK context is scarce. The current study compares the linguistic and mathematical abilities of EAL and FLE children in Key Stage 2 and investigates the linguistic and cognitive predictors of reading comprehension, arithmetic computation and mathematical word problem solving ability in both groups. A sample of 28 EAL and 44 FLE children from Year 3 and Year 5 were assessed on a battery of measures, and a sub-sample were reassessed one year later. In comparison to their FLE peers, the EAL children showed weaknesses in language comprehension and struggled with the contextualisation of arithmetic problems into mathematical word problems, but displayed comparable decoding and arithmetic skills. Overall, the predictors of reading comprehension and mathematical performance were comparable between the language groups, though general vocabulary knowledge was found to be a stronger predictor of both reading comprehension and mathematical word problem solving for the EAL children. The relevance of these findings to our understanding of academic achievement in EAL children are discussed, as well as their educational implications.