Cross-language transfer in cross-country contexts: Examining longitudinal relationships between Urdu phonological processing and English reading in Pakistan and Canada

This study examines whether kindergarten-level Urdu phonological processing predicts the future Grade 1 English word/non-word reading accuracy skills of Urdu-English bilinguals in Pakistan and Canada. At Timepoint 1 of this longitudinal study, we assessed 154 Urdu-English kindergarten-aged bilinguals in Pakistan (n = 104; Experiment 1) and in our exploratory study in Canada (n = 50; Experiment 2) on their Urdu phonological awareness and rapid automatised naming skills via the Urdu Phonological Tele-Assessment Tool. At Timepoint 2, we tested their English word and non-word reading accuracy skills at the Grade 1 level. Hierarchical linear regressions generally demonstrated significant cross-language transfer effects between Urdu phonological awareness and the English word/non-word reading accuracy measures in both Pakistan and Canada. Predictive strength differences were demonstrated between rapid automatised naming and reading outcomes based on country-specific contexts. Our findings demonstrate that languages learnt in both a societal or heritage context (i.e. Urdu) contribute to early reading skills in another language (i.e. English). This study emphasises the role of cross-language transfer for facilitating equitable access to early assessment for bilingual populations. We highlight that Urdu phonological processing skills can be used to identify bilingual children’s future English reading abilities, rather than waiting until the child demonstrates adequate language proficiency for completing traditional English phonological assessments.