Predicting Reading Comprehension by Reading Level and Diglossia: A Comparison between Diglossic First Grade Students with and without Learning Disabilities

This study aimed to study the association between diglossic reading skills and reading comprehension in first grade students with and without learning disabilities. In this study population, students presented diglossia in literary and colloquial Arabic: 30 first grade students with learning disabilities and 30 first grade students without learning disabilities were assessed using a reading test (accuracy and fluency in both languages: literary and colloquial) and a reading comprehension test. This study's findings show significantly better measures of reading skills and reading comprehension in the students without learning disabilities, and significant interaction between reading and reading comprehension in the entire study population. In view of the marked gaps between the two populations of students, it is important to pay special attention to the population with learning disabilities and strive to help these students improve on the measures tested in this study (reading skills and reading comprehension). This could have a positive impact on a variety of other pedagogical-related phenomena, such as academic achievements in school subjects.