First-time L2 readers: Is there a critical period?

Abstract

"The view in post-industrial countries that immigrants are the main source of economic growth rests on the misguided assumption that the typical immigrant has spoken and written second language skills (see Dustman & Fabbri, 2003). That at least literacy skills may not support such growth is suggested by 1990s statistics from the USA which reveal that the education level of 40% of post-compulsory-school age, employable immigrants (i.e. 18-64 year-olds) is primary or lower (Coulombe et al., 2004; Mace-Matluck et al., 1999). Worldwide statistics on literacy show 20 million refugees (Oxford Brookes University Development and Forced Migration Research Unit) and 861 million adults unable to read in their native language or any other language (UN Literacy Decade Project). It is thus unsurprising that this 40% includes adult immigrants without any schooling whatsoever. Do educators and policy makers know what prognosis is for immigrant adults confronted with the challenge of learning to read for the first time in a second language (L2)? While reports from teachers of English as a second language point to the consensus that learning to read is extremely laborious for such individuals, the dearth of empirical studies makes it impossible to know whether unschooled L2 adults have the same potential to become readers as do pre-school children. The answer to this question has important implications: if the evidence indicates the potential exists, then the case can be made for the allocation of sufficient pedagogical resources to support unschooled immigrant adults’ development of literacy"