Children/adolescents with poor literacy skills score poorer on foreign language phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and reading comprehension than peers with typical literacy skills¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesis r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2021 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q3 i? Among the interpretable pooled effects, poor readers/spellers scored poorer than controls on foreign language phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and reading comprehension. → von Hagen 2021

Evidence¶

von Hagen 2021¶

von Hagen, A., Kohnen, S., & Stadie, N. (2021). Foreign Language Attainment of Children/Adolescents with Poor Literacy Skills: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09566-6

q3 · i? · quant-synthesis · r3

Random-effects meta-analysis of group-comparison studies of poor readers/spellers versus controls on foreign language measures. Among the four interpretable overall SMDs, "poor readers/spellers scored poorer on foreign language phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and reading comprehension"; no standardized effect size is printed in this sentence.

"In contrast, poor readers/spellers scored poorer on foreign language phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and reading comprehension."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

Phonological Awareness — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
Reading and Language — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Poor readers/spellers vary significantly more than controls in foreign language phonological awareness performance — related
Significant between-study heterogeneity limits interpretation of foreign language attainment differences in poor readers/spellers — related
Foreign language reading comprehension performance varies to a similar extent in poor and typical literacy groups — related
Children/adolescents with poor literacy skills show similar average foreign language receptive vocabulary knowledge to peers with typical literacy skills — related
Exempting students with poor literacy skills from foreign language instruction is not based on systematic evidence — related

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`claim`
`id`	`poor-literacy-lower-fl-phonological-awareness-letter-knowledge-reading-comprehension`
`title`	`Children/adolescents with poor literacy skills score poorer on foreign language phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and reading comprehension than peers with typical literacy skills`
`description`	`Children/adolescents with poor literacy skills score poorer on foreign language phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and reading comprehension than peers with typical literacy skills`
`status`	`review`
`evidence_strength`	`moderate`
`newest_evidence`	`2021`
`source_checked`	`2026-10-20`
`generated`	by `process:wiki-ingest` on `2026-10-20`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	1 — `von-hagen-2021`

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