Young learners’ reading-writing skills in English as FL in Kazakhstan

Abstract

This study examines reading and writing skills in English as a foreign language (EFL) of 12-year-old students in the middle schools in Pavlodar (North part of Kazakhstan). The participants were six graders, Kazakh (N=115) and Russian (N=145) native speakers from seven randomly chosen middle secondary schools in Pavlodar. Kazakh and Russian students performed the tests in English assessing reading and writing skills, and responded several questions regarding socio-economic status (SES) in order to explore the interaction of SES and skills in EFL. The results showed that Kazakh students performed better in writing, whereas Russians were better in reading. Moreover, weak correlation between reading and writing skills in English may emerge the effect of non-transparent orthography of English and the deep transparency in Kazakh and Russian languages. The instruments proved to be appropriate for Kazakhstani context although writing tests need further improvements. Apparent independence of reading and writing performances may be due to the compound nature of score in writing, limited number of classes, fewer opportunities for everyday interaction in EFL.