Cross-Language Transfer in Cross-Country Contexts: Examining Longitudinal Relationships between Urdu Phonological Processing and English Reading in Pakistan and Canada

Purpose: This study examines whether kindergarten-level Urdu phonological processing predicts the future Grade 1 English word and non-word reading accuracy skills of Urdu-English bilinguals in (i) Pakistan, with an Urdu as a national/societal-language country context, and (ii) Canada, with an Urdu as a heritage-language country context. Method: At Timepoint 1 of this longitudinal study, we assessed 154 Urdu-English kindergarten-aged bilinguals in Pakistan (n = 104) and Canada (n = 50) on their Urdu phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) skills, via the Urdu Phonological Tele-Assessment Tool (U-PASS). After 1 year at Timepoint 2, we tested their English word and non-word reading accuracy skills at the Grade 1 level. Result: Our hierarchical linear regressions consistently demonstrated cross-language transfer between Urdu phonological awareness and the English word and non-word reading accuracy measures in both Pakistan and Canada. Predictive strength differences were demonstrated between RAN and reading outcomes, based on country-specific contexts. Conclusion: 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), thereby emphasizing the importance of overall cross-language knowledge at the early stages of learning to read. This study also emphasizes the role of cross-language transfer for facilitating equitable access to early assessment for bilingual populations: Urdu phonological processing skills can be used to identify bilingual children’s future English reading abilities, rather than waiting until the child demonstrates adequate English language proficiency for completing traditional English phonological processing assessments.