German reading, spelling, and other literacy-related skills in multilinguals with varying home languages

Many children learn to read in a language that is different from a language spoken at home. Using two large-scale datasets with primary school children, we examine the effects of multilingualism on literacy acquisition in the language of schooling, German. First, we aim to establish if there are overall differences in written language skills, once we account for social factors and oral language skills. Second, we investigate whether the characteristics of the home language (language separation from German, different scripts) and children’s home language skills (literate versus not literate in home language) affect German literacy. In the first dataset, >3000 (59 multilingual) children completed a set of literacy-related tasks in an online format. We find a multilingual disadvantage in reading, which is most pronounced for children whose home language is written in a different script and who have been in Germany for a relatively short time. However, we do not have enough information to account for differences in oral language skills. From the second dataset including offline tests in a representative sample of German fourth graders, we included >7000 children (141 multilingual). Here, we find no differences for reading once oral language skills are controlled for, and a multilingual advantage for spelling. The characteristics of the home language or multiliteracy seem to have no effect of literacy in German. The results show advantages of multilingualism, if differences in oral language skills can be overcome.