Caterina Artuso
Department of Education, University of Genova, Corso Podestà, 2, 16121 Genova, Italy
Denise Zappella
University of Pavia, Piazza Botta 11, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Paola Palladino
Department of Humanistic Studies, University of Foggia, Via Arpi 176, 71121 Foggia, Italy
In the present study, we applied a two-year longitudinal design to examine the reading and spelling acquisition of primary school students during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis among three groups with different linguistic conditions and socioeconomic status (SES): low-SES and high-SES monolinguals, and low-SES bilingual children (minority language). Reading speed and spelling errors were examined at the beginning of second grade in fall 2019 (pre-pandemic phase) and tested again, with standardised tests, two years later in fall 2021 (post-pandemic phase) when children attended fourth grade. The results showed that, on average, all the children increased both their reading speed and spelling skills. With respect to the role of the COVID-19 pandemic on basic literacy, we cannot broadly conclude that it hampered literacy, given that all groups (regardless of their linguistic condition) showed development in reading and spelling. However, it is worth mentioning that, in light of the qualitative comparison to the norm, spelling accuracy is noticeably lower in low-SES bilinguals than in monolinguals, whereas reading speed is comparable to the standardised value and does not differ significantly between monolinguals and bilinguals. The results contribute to the debate on the interaction between SES and language literacy acquisition in minority languages, particularly under unique conditions such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Copyright © 2024 Caterina Artuso, Denise Zappella, Paola Palladino
This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
