Evidence of a Strong Correlation between the Achievements in L1 and L2 in Grade 5 Children

Abstract

Research has shown that both the L1 and the L2 are processed by the same neural networks (e.g. Perani &Abutalebi,2005), therefore there is possibility to find similarities and transfer between L1 and L2 skills (Wade-Woolley, 1999). Even if the writing systems are not similar, but share some characteristics (e.g., if both are deep and alphabetic) there are good chances of a positive transfer of reading skills from L1 (Urdu) to L2 (English) (Farukh & Vulchanova, 2015).

In the present study, we explored the relationship between Urdu and English scores of grade 5 children. The children were from public sector schools and the data used was from their District primary board of Examination. The main objective of the study was to explore the correlation between both languages i.e. Urdu and English. The scores of children were selected randomly from 6 schools i.e. 4 boys’ schools and 2 girls’ schools. The study began with collection of record of scores in 2 languages e.g. Urdu (L1) and English (L2), taught as compulsory subjects. Scores of 200 students (166 boys and 34 girls) were collected in this way. Results from Pearson’s correlation indicated that there was a strong co-relation between the two language scores. A pedagogic implication of the results is that if a child is not performing in correspondence with his performance in L1, having similar or even different orthographic features then there are more chances of the failure of teaching method, and it is not because of any deficit in the child. Furthermore, a t-test showed that the achievement of girls was better than boys for both languages.