Children/adolescents with poor literacy skills show similar average foreign language receptive vocabulary knowledge to peers with typical literacy skills¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesis r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · 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? For foreign language receptive vocabulary knowledge, poor readers/spellers performed similarly on average to controls; the pooled SMD of −0.47 was not significant. → 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 · r2

Random-effects meta-analysis of five studies (119 poor readers/spellers, 126 controls) with non-significant heterogeneity (Q = 7.40, I² = 45.98%). The pooled SMD was −0.47 [−0.82, −0.11] with a non-significant Z of −2.59, described by the authors as "a similar performance".

"For foreign language receptive vocabulary knowledge, children/adolescents with poor literacy skills on average showed a similar performance to their peers with typical literacy skills."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

Oral Language — outcome: instruction changes it
Reading and Language — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Children/adolescents with poor literacy skills score poorer on foreign language phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and reading comprehension than peers with typical literacy skills — related
Significant between-study heterogeneity limits interpretation of foreign language attainment differences in poor readers/spellers — related
Exempting students with poor literacy skills from foreign language instruction is not based on systematic evidence — related
Foreign language reading comprehension performance varies to a similar extent in poor and typical literacy groups — related

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`claim`
`id`	`poor-literacy-similar-fl-receptive-vocabulary`
`title`	`Children/adolescents with poor literacy skills show similar average foreign language receptive vocabulary knowledge to peers with typical literacy skills`
`description`	`Children/adolescents with poor literacy skills show similar average foreign language receptive vocabulary knowledge to peers with typical literacy skills`
`status`	`review`
`evidence_strength`	`weak`
`newest_evidence`	`2021`
`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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