Articles written by

Louisa Grech

Volume 11-Issue 1: June 2017

Developmental Variation in Predictors of Reading Comprehension amongst Maltese Students

This study examined cognitive and language skills that are predictive of reading comprehension in Maltese in typically developing students of different ages. A structured random sample of three different grade groups of Maltese state school students, aged between 9 and 12 years participated in this study. This sample was representative of the population. They were administered a Maltese Reading Comprehension test together with three word-level tests (Non-Word Reading, Digit Span, and Rapid Naming), and three understanding-level tests (Jumbled Sentences, Listening Comprehension, and Ravens Progressive Matrices). Statistical analyses indicated that Reading Comprehension scores were primarily related to scores on listening comprehension and syntactic awareness (Jumbled Sentences). However, the youngest students showed greater influence of word-level processes on reading comprehension in contrast to their older peers.
43 min read
Volume 12-Issue 2: December 2018

English Reading comprehension assessment in Malta: An evaluation of the use of the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability

English literacy assessments in Malta are mainly based on tests standardised among English speaking populations. Such practice raises questions as to its suitability within the Maltese bilingual context. This study explores the implications of such practice by evaluating the performance of Maltese students on a widely used test, namely the Neale Analysis of Reading Comprehension – Revised (NARA II). The test was individually administered to a total of 224 students, representing developmental processes through three age-groups between 7-14 years, and two different home language backgrounds also reflected in two different types of school, State and Independent. Analysis of variance and correlations were used to highlight differences between the scores of the three age-groups and the two types of school and home background. The results indicate that comprehension levels improved sequentially with age; however, the norms derived from a monolingual English population do not represent appropriately the varying bilingual contexts of Maltese students. Moreover, particular discrepancies in the participants’ scores on the three subscales of the test - namely Reading Comprehension, Reading Accuracy and Reading Rate raise questions about the profile of competencies in English reading comprehension that are being acquired by Maltese students.