Reading in one's ethnic language: A study of Greek-Australian high school students

Athanasou, JA; Lamprianou, I

Reading in one's ethnic language: A study of Greek-Australian high school students

Athanasou, JA

Lamprianou, I

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Australian Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, 2004, 4 pp. 86 - 96
Issue Date:: 2004-12-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Athanasou, JA https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4743-4098	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Lamprianou, I	en_US
dc.date.issued	2004-12-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Australian Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, 2004, 4 pp. 86 - 96	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1446-5442	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/6031
dc.description.abstract	This paper examines reading achievement when the maternal/paternal language has become a de facto second language. The performance of a cohort of Greek-Australian high school students (N=270) on a diagnostic Greek reading test was significantly below that of pupils in second to fourth grades in Greece. The mean item difficulty for Greek-Australian high school students was 0.35 compared with 0.51 for second grade, 0.69 for third grade and 0.80 for fourth grade pupils in Greece. The pattern of responding indicated that the Rasch model fitted the data. The effects of background factors were also examined. Students whose mother or father spoke Greek had statistically significant higher levels of ability than those who spoke Greek and English or English alone. It was also found that the length of the key words (correct responses) had a large effect on the difficulty of the questions; the longer the key word, the more difficult the question was. The implications of the results for assessment of reading in and the acquisition of an ethnic or second language are discussed.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Australian Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Education	en_US
dc.title	Reading in one's ethnic language: A study of Greek-Australian high school students	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	4	en_US
utslib.for	170103 Educational Psychology	en_US
utslib.for	1701 Psychology	en_US
utslib.for	1503 Business and Management	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/School of Education
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	4	en_US

Abstract:

This paper examines reading achievement when the maternal/paternal language has become a de facto second language. The performance of a cohort of Greek-Australian high school students (N=270) on a diagnostic Greek reading test was significantly below that of pupils in second to fourth grades in Greece. The mean item difficulty for Greek-Australian high school students was 0.35 compared with 0.51 for second grade, 0.69 for third grade and 0.80 for fourth grade pupils in Greece. The pattern of responding indicated that the Rasch model fitted the data. The effects of background factors were also examined. Students whose mother or father spoke Greek had statistically significant higher levels of ability than those who spoke Greek and English or English alone. It was also found that the length of the key words (correct responses) had a large effect on the difficulty of the questions; the longer the key word, the more difficult the question was. The implications of the results for assessment of reading in and the acquisition of an ethnic or second language are discussed.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/6031