Abstract

This study investigated the effect of learning English (L2) on learning to read and spell connected texts accurately in Arabic (L1). The author selected a sample of 83 (38 males and 45 females; 45 bilinguals and 38 monolinguals) native Arabic-speaking fourth-graders in Egypt. Students completed the author-developed Oral Reading Accuracy Measure and Spelling Accuracy Measure. Interestingly, results revealed that the bilingual (Arabic-English) students performed better than their monolingual (Arabic) counterparts on the two literacy variables: oral reading accuracy (ORA) and spelling accuracy (SA). The discussion concludes that learning English (L2) has a positive effect on students’ oral reading accuracy and spelling accuracy in Arabic (L1).

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