Revisiting the Relationship between English Reading and Vocabulary: Insights from Multilingual Third Graders in Northeast India

We examined the relations among English vocabulary, word reading, and phonological awareness in multilingual third graders in Northeast India. Our primary aim was to systematically investigate how reading skills influence vocabulary knowledge. When formal literacy is neither in the first nor second language, in what ways does literacy acquisition shape word knowledge skills? The sample comprised Grade 3 students (N = 248, Female = 118) with an average age of 8 years. They were sampled across three states in India– Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland; most of them speak either a Trans-Himalayan or an Austro-Asiatic language as their home or societal language. We administered tests of vocabulary knowledge, word reading and phonological awareness in English. The strongest association was between vocabulary breadth and word reading efficiency. Moreover, the positive effects of word reading on vocabulary varied at different levels of accuracy and efficiency skills. These findings suggest that the influence of reading on vocabulary was a function of the specific operational definition and dimension of vocabulary knowledge. By investigating readers with foundational literacy in English, this study provided an additional piece of evidence to further clarify the link between common predictors and outcomes of reading proficiency.