6 - Language and Literacy

• How was the language most frequently spoken in the home associated with English literacy skill?
• How did this association change between 1996 and 2006?
  

This section examines these questions.

Language

ALL measures literacy and numeracy in English. The test booklets are written in English only and answers are required in English. However, an increasing proportion of New Zealanders speak other languages more frequently at home. This section looks at the effect of home language on English-language-based literacy and numeracy.

Evidence suggests that, for school students, the language spoken most frequently in the home influences literacy skill (in the test language) more than numeracy skill (as measured through the test language medium).¹ This section investigates whether this applies for the adult population.  The relative sizes of the population who most frequently spoke English in the home and the population who most frequently spoke another language are compared in Figure 6.1.

Figure 6.1: Language spoken most frequently in the home, IALS and ALL

Note: 
Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Figure 6.1 shows that there was an increase over the decade from 1996 to 2006 in the percentage of people who spoke a language other than English most frequently in the home.

Prose literacy and language

The distributions of prose literacy skill are shown in Figure 6.2.

Figure 6.2: Prose literacy and language spoken, IALS and ALL

Note:

1. Levels 3, 4 and 5 are combined to give more robust statistical information.
2. The reported statistics for the IALS survey for Other are of marginal quality.
3. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.
   

Figure 6.2 shows that those who most frequently spoke a language other than English in the home had substantially lower overall prose literacy skills than those who most frequently spoke English.

Figure 6.2 also shows that the overall prose literacy skill increased from 1996 to 2006 for both those who most frequently spoke English in the home and those who most frequently spoke another language in the home. For both populations the percentage at prose literacy level 1 decreased substantially.  This decrease was particularly marked for those who most frequently spoke a language other than English in the home, moving from around 59% to 36%. For those who most frequently spoke English in the home, the percentage at prose literacy skill level 2 remained relatively stable (moving from around 28% to 30%), but for those who most frequently spoke a language other than English, the percentage increased substantially (from around 22% to 40%). For both populations the percentage at prose literacy skill level 3, 4 or 5 increased (and for those who most frequently spoke a language other than English, the percentage increased substantially).

Numeracy and language

The distributions of numeracy skill are shown in Figure 6.3.

Figure 6.3: Numeracy and language spoken, ALL only

Note:

1. Levels 3, 4 and 5 are combined to give more robust statistical information.
2. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.
   

Figure 6.3 shows that those who most frequently spoke a language other than English in the home had substantially lower overall numeracy skills than those who most frequently spoke English. However, the effect of language most frequently spoken in the home was smaller for numeracy skill than it was for prose literacy skill. This is seen by comparing the difference in percentages at level 2 for the two populations in prose literacy skill with the difference in percentages at level 2 for the two populations in numeracy skill. These comparisons can also be made for levels 3, 4 and 5.

 

Footnote

1. See, for example, Table 4.3b of OECD (2007) PISA 2006 Volume 2: Data.