| Summary: | Not many studies exist in the literature on reading in South Africa which examine
the differences between the reading performance of first (L1) and second (L2)
language English speaking learners, particularly those who experience barriers to
learning. Using archival material from the Education Clinic of the University of
the Witwatersrand, this study compared the results on the Stanford Diagnostic
Reading Test (Brown Level) for a group of 43 high school L1 (20) and L2 (23)
learners identified as experiencing barriers to learning. In line with international
research on reading difficulties skills (Ben-Zeev, 1984; Baker, 1988; Drucker,
2003; Cummins, 1989,1991; Miller, 1984; Droop and Verhoeven, 1998), it was
found that the L2 students performed significantly below the level of their L1
counterparts in Auditory Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension. The results
on the Phonetic Analysis were found to be similar for both groups.
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