The Arabic Diglossia Reality: The Effect of Specific Story Reading in Kindergarten on Reading Acquisition in First Grade

Due to the diglossic nature of the Arabic language, Arabic-speaking children enter their first year of school with immaturity in literary language and word representations in their mental lexicon. This study examined the effects of interactive story reading in kindergarten on future reading skills and whether this effect can be generalized to reading skills of infrequent words. 102 Arabic-speaking kindergarten children were divided into two groups: 1) the intervention group was based on a first-grade textbook; 2) the control group was based on classic stories from the kindergarten library. The program was implemented for three months during the kindergarten year. The findings show that the intervention group’s scores were higher than the control group in measures of represented/practiced and unfamiliar items. Additionally, the gain of the intervention group in reading unfamiliar items provide evidence for a generalization effect of t he intervention program. We conclude that the negative impact of diglossia on reading acquisition in Arabic can be reduced during kindergarten.