Reading interventions in bilinguals: a systematic literacy review

Abstract

This literature review focused on children’s bilingualism in the research literature of technical literacy intervention studies. The main goal was to find perspectives to be utilized in neuropsychological rehabilitation, map the content and effectiveness of interventions for reading difficulties in bilingual children and the effect of cross-linguistic transfer.

Based on the keywords and admission criteria, six studies were selected for the review. The studies focused on children under school age and primary school age. The native language of the participants varied, and the second language was English. The results, duration and content of the interventions varied. Five of the studies found an intervention effect on reading ability or reading accuracy in the target language. The publications had qualitative weaknesses, and the generalizability of the results should be treated with caution. The benefits of the interventions were related to the stronger phonological skills found in the initial measurement and the reading fluency in the mother tongue. The interventions did not show effects on second language reading fluency. Regarding the cross-linguistic transfer effect, the results could not be reliably estimated.

Early support for second language reading skills and technical literacy even before strong oral proficiency in the second language can produce positive results. Fluency in the mother tongue does not rule out reading difficulties in another language, but rehabilitation responses to reading interventions in the second language may be more favorable. It is important to initially assess reading skills and technical literacy, and to monitor progress in both languages, ​​so that slow-developing bilingual children can be directed to more effective support and rehabilitation at an earlier stage. The language skills of bilingual children at risk for reading difficulties should be assessed more widely and support should be tailored to individual needs.