A 3-year longitudinal investigation of the overlap and stability of English and French word reading difficulties in French immersion children

Extensive research has demonstrated the importance of struggling reader identification in monolingual children Compton et al. (Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 327–340, 2010). However, very few studies have explored identification of struggling readers in bilinguals. The aim of this study was to investigate (1) the overlap of word reading difficulties in English and French, (2) the difference in overlap when word reading fluency skills are included in struggling reader classification, and (3) the stability of English and French word reading profiles. A total of 169 French immersion children were followed from grades 1 to 3. Standardized measures of English and French word reading accuracy and fluency were administered every year to classify status as a bilingual typical reader, bilingual struggling reader, English struggling reader, or French struggling reader. Chi-square analyses were conducted to assess the overlap between English and French word reading difficulties and stability of word reading profiles from grades 1 to 3. Results indicated that struggling reader classification using both word reading accuracy and fluency as opposed to accuracy alone captured bilingual reading difficulties (difficulties in both languages) more accurately. Across all grades, there was a significant relationship between being a struggling reader in English and being a struggling reader in French, with the percentage of overlap ranging from 56 to 82%. Moreover, being a bilingual struggling reader in grade 1 was significantly related to being a bilingual struggling reader in grades 2 and 3. These findings suggest that English-French bilingual children with reading impairments have significant and persistent deficits in both languages.