1. What makes the illiterate language genius? Jeanne Kurvers & Ineke van de Craats Tilburg University Radboud University Nijmegen j.j.kurvers@uvt.nl i.v.d.craats@let.ru.nl

2. What makes the illiterate language genius? Is it a good working memory? or (also) something else?

3. The Study Relationship between Working memory and L2 vocabulary Working memory and L2 basic reading skills Comparison between Adult and child L2 learners Average and above average adult L2 learners

4. Participants Participants: 173 Adult L2 learners 57 no previous schooling age18-61 Primary school L2 children:116 grade 1 –7 Language background L1 different languages L2 Dutch

5. Instruments Digit span task (WISC-R, forward) Non-word repetition task (Gerrits) same task scored in two ways - phonemic score (how many phonemes) - span score (how many words) Vocabulary task (TAK) Word reading task (Decoding fluency)

6. Correlations WM measures Pearson (2-tailed) correlations for L2 children NDigit spanNRT Phoneme score NRT Phoneme score 116.579 ** NRT span score 116.438 **.619 **

7. Correlations WM measures Pearson (2-tailed) correlations for L2 adults NDigit spanNRT Phoneme score NRT Phoneme score 57.527 ** NRT span score 57.490 **.728 **

8. Correlations WM measures The two WM tests correlate significantly for both groups. The two measures of the NRT show higher correlations for adults. The pattern of correlations is the same for both age groups. cf. Cheung (1996); Juffs (LESLLA Proceedings, 2006)

9. Group scores WM and Vocabulary Age groupNMeanSDt Digit spanChildren Adults 116 58 4,29 3,66 1,5 1,3 2.71** NRT phoneme score Children Adults 116 57 85,07 83,35 13,1 9,4 0.88 NRT spanChildren Adults 116 57 11,90 10,95 5,0 4.8 1.18 Vocabulary size Children Adults 116 57 5691.48 2394,11 3552,28 1149,27 6.83** Scores for children and adults

10. WM - vocabulary size Pearson (2-tailed) correlations for vocabulary size (children and adults) NChildrenNAdults Digit span116.570**57.085 NRT phoneme score 116.349**57.041 NRT span score116.363**57.195 ** = significant at p <. 01

11. WM - vocabulary size WM measures correlate significantly with vocabulary size for children, not for adults. (32 % explained variance for the digit span for children) Are there better predictiors of the success in vocabulary learning for adult illiterate learners?

12. Literacy and CEFR levels Literacy A Liter acy B Lite racy C CEF A2 CEF A1 functional literate basic level CEF R= Common European Framework of Reference of Languages

13. Group scores WM (adults) TaskLevelNMeanSD Digit spanLiteracy level A Literacy level B Literacy level C/ A1 Level A2 25 13 11 9 3.36 3.23 4.27 4.33 1.11 1.30 1.79 1.22 NRT phoneme score Literacy level A Literacy level B Literacy level C/ A1 Level A2 25 13 11 9 79.25 83.76 86.03 90.91 1.85 2.97 2.03 1.88 NRT span score Literacy level A Literacy level B Literacy level C/ A1 Level A2 25 13 11 9 8.24 10.67 13.09 16.22.760 1.01 1.49 1.21 Difference between the 4 level groups is significant (F=2.21, p<.03)

14. Comparable groups: Matching pairs Individuals from the group of low/average literacy learners (level A and B) were matched with individuals of the above average learners (C/A1 and A2) on the basis of: months of L2 instruction, age, years of residence in the Netherlands, having children and native language. (in this order) No one had any education in the home country 12 pairs could be formed.

15. Group scores (background, vocabulary and reading) groupNmeansdT Months of L2 lessonsAverage Above aver. 12 3.08 3.25 1.16 1,05 -.367 AgeAverage Above aver. 12 36.08 33.75 12.05 10.57.505 VocabularyAverage Above aver. 12 30.58 47.33 14.69 16.47 -2.628** ReadingAverage Above aver. 12 17.80 32.92 12.09 12.48 -2.86** Scores for matched pairs

16. Correlations WM measures Pearson (2-tailed) correlations for matched pairs NDigit spanNRT Phoneme score NRT Phoneme score 24.369 NRT span score 24.262.618 **

17. Group scores (matched pairs N=12 for each group) GroupMeanSDTD Digit spanAverage Above 4,08 4,67 1,17 1,72 -.970.40 NRT phon. score Average Above 86,06 89,53 3,94 6,74 -1.540.63 NRT spanAverage Above 11,00 14,83 5,0 5.49 -2.06*0.73 Vocabulary DMT reading L2 level Average Above Average Above Average Above 30.58 47.33 17.80 32.92 1.50 3.42 14.69 16.48 12.09 12.49.52 -2.63* -2.89** -9.05** 1.07 1.23 * = p <.05 ** = p <.01

18. WM - vocabulary size Pearson (2-tailed) correlations for vocabulary size (matched pairs) NVocabulary size Digit span24-.097 NRT phoneme score24-.073 NRT span score24.155

19. WM – word reading NWord reading Digit span22.115 NRT phoneme score22.427* NRT span score22.478* * = p <.05 Pearson (2-tailed) correlations for word reading (matched pairs)

20. Background variables Pearson (2-tailed) correlations for 3 background variables (matched pairs) VocabularyReading Months of L2 lessons.436*.150 Age.070-.295 Length of residence.268-.069 * = p <.05

21. Conclusions The matched groups of above average /very good DL2/literacy learners and average learners differ significantly on : -NRT span score, -vocabulary size, -reading, -general L2 level (starting point). There are no significant differences on -the digit span and phoneme scores. Correlations are found between: -phoneme score and reading (p <.05) -non-word span and reading (p <.05) -length of L2-lessons and vocabulary (p <.05)

22. Discussion The direction of causality is not clear: what was first: the larger non-word span before learning to read or is the larger span a result of learning to read? Let us focus on the characteristics of the three best learners.

23. The three best learners CodeVocabulary score Reading score Digit span NRTphone me score NRT span Proficien cy level #59774359521A2 #56714048916A2 #6068322778A1 #51555379419A2 #53494748916A2 #55354639519A2 Ordered with respect to vocabulary score Ordered with respect to reading score

24. Who are they? One might think that the best learners: are young have much language contact are motivated have home support have intensive courses are in favorable circumstances (SES) but ……

25. Who are they? No. 1: best score for vocabulary Moroccan – 44 years old – fem. – residence: 20 years – 5 th year of L2 lessons – divorced, children - speaking Dutch at home – much L2 contact – no support – high motivation – SES unfavorable No. 2 Afghanistan – 29 years old – fem. – residence: 8 years – 4 th year of L2 lessons – Afgh. Partner – less L2 contact –home support– SES favorable No.3 Vietnamese – 60 years old –fem. – residence: 23 years – 1 st year of L2 lessons – Dutch partner – speaks Dutch at home – SES favorable

26. Who are they? No. 1: best score for reading Somali – 23 years old – fem. – residence: 5 years –3 rd year of L2 lessons – Somali partner – much L2 contact – highly motivated – much support – SES favorable No. 2 Moroccan – 28 years old – fem. – residence: 8 years – 4 th year of L2 lessons – divorced, children – Dutch at home with children – much L2 contact – highly motivated – no support – SES unfavorable No.3 Afghanistan – 28 years old – male – residence: 6 years – 2 nd year of L2 lessons – no partner – no Dutch at home – much language contact – very motivated – no support – SES very favorable

27. The least successful learners CodeVocabulary score Reading score Digit span NRTphone me score NRT span Proficien cy level #3112059013Lit. A #0413-58712Lit. A #39212048410Lit. A #3112059013Lit. A #365972796Lit. A #1757928210Lit. B Ordered with respect to vocabulary score Ordered with respect to reading score

28. Who are they? No. 1lowest score for vocabulary Turkish – 49 years old – fem. – residence: 10 years – 2 nd year of L2 lessons – children No. 2 Turkish – 56 years old – fem. – residence: 25 years – 1 st year of L2 lessons – children No.3 Moroccan Berber – 52 years old –fem. – residence: 15 years – 1 st year of L2 lessons – children No. 1: lowest score for reading Turkish – 49 years old – fem. – residence: 10 years – 2 nd year of L2 lessons – children No. 2 Somali - 34 years old – fem. - residence: 7 years – 2-5 years of L2 lessons – children (but high score for vocabulary: 59) No. 3 Moroccan Berber - 49 years old – fem. - residence: 25 years – 2-5 years of L2 lessons – children (but high score for vocabulary: 57)

29. What seems to count? Age? Years of residence Language use? Months of L2 lessons? Not convincing Yes, but counter evidence Yes, but

30. Conclusions The best results for reading are found for learners between 20-30 years old. The three best readers do not necessarily have a large vocabulary. Those who have acquired a large vocabulary show a larger age difference. The learners with the lowest scores are most older learners. The best learners have higher NRT span scores.

31. Thanks to Eefje Cadee Noortje Grijsbach Jeske Paalvast Noortje Schilders from Tilburg / Nijmegen University who administered the tests and wrote their master theses on this subject