African Educational Research Journal - Special Issue 9(S1) - Reading literacy of bilingual and monolingual students in Turkey: A comparative study based on PISA 2018 data

Oct 15, 2026

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Reading literacy is a foundational prerequisite for academic success across disciplines. PISA provides extensive demographic information to identify weaknesses within education systems, including challenges bilingual learners face in schools, particularly language-related difficulties. This causal-comparative study compares bilingual and monolingual Turkish reading literacy using PISA 2018 data while controlling for students’ economic, social, and cultural status. Results from 6,890 students in 186 schools show monolingual students outperform bilingual students under controlled covariates, indicating instructional or learning-strategy issues beyond background factors.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

What is bilingualism?

African Educational Research Journal Special Issue 9(S1), pp. S21-S28, June 2021 DOI: 10. 30918/AERJ. 9S1 .21.010 ISSN: 2354-2160 Full Length Research Paper Reading literacy of bilingual and monolingual students in Turkey: A comparative study based on PISA 2018 data Cenan İşci Department of Turkish Education, Artvin Coruh University, Artvin, Turkey. | ABSTRACT
Reading literacy is regarded as one of the most crucial prerequisites for academic success in all fields. PISA surveys reading literacy with extensive demographic data in several countries to provide detailed feedback for detecting problems in their education systems. In many countries, bilingual students are facing several problems in schools, especially language-related problems. In this context, this study is causal-comparative research aiming to compare bilingual and monolingual students’ Turkish reading literacies based on PISA 2018 data while controlling their economic, social and cultural status. In Turkey, 6890 students from 186 schools, who were selected through stratified random sampling, participated in PISA 2018 implementation. Bilingual and monolingual students’ reading literacies were compared through ANCOVA where their economic social and cultural status is the covariate. Findings showed that monolingual students have greater reading literacy scores than bilingual students when their economic, social and cultural status were controlled. This finding indicates that there may be some problems in Turkish language teaching/learning strategies for bilingual students, which do not originate from their economic, social and cultural status. In this paper, the possible reasons for bilingual students’ low reading literacy, are discussed, and some possible solutions for these problems are suggested.
Keywords: Reading literacy, bilingualism, PISA 2018. | | --- | | E-mail: [cenanisci@artvin.edu.tr. Tel:](cenanisci@artvin.edu.tr. Tel:) +90 530 410 5284. | INTRODUCTION Reading literacy is generally defined as the ability to respond to written texts appropriately (Bormuth, 1973) . It is one of the most basic skills for success in school and professional life. Therefore, one of the most important goals of education systems in many countries is to increase students’ reading literacy. To achieve this basic goal, it is necessary to measure and track students’reading literacy. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) measures reading literacy in many countries including its members regularly by Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) . PISA is an international survey study aiming to measure reading, mathematics and science literacies of 15-yearold students from participant countries. PISA has been conducted every three years since 2003. In 2018, 79 countries or regions including Turkey participated in PISA (MEB, 2019) . Turkey has participated in PISA since 2003 and its reading literacy scores are regularly below OECD averages (MEB, 2019), which indicates some possible system-wide problems in Turkish language education in Turkey. There are several known and studied issues (e.g. gender inequity, socio-economic issues) in Turkish language education, however, the issues related to bilingual students’ reading literacy in Turkish have not adequately been studied. Before solving the issues in the education system, first , they should be defined and described with respect to several dimensions based on empirical data. To detect and solve possible issues about reading literacy that bilingual students face, making a comparison of bilingual and monolingual students based on a large survey may be a good start. A difference between bilingual and monolingual students’ Turkish reading literacy may point out a potential system-wide issue. In this context, the general purpose of this study is to compare monolingual and bilingual students’ reading literacies in Turkish based on PISA 2018 data in order to check whether there are so

FAQs

What is the purpose of the study and what data does it use?

The study compares Turkish reading literacy of bilingual and monolingual students using PISA 2018 data. It aims to determine whether practical problems exist in bilingual students’ reading literacy.

How does the study control for students’ background differences?

It compares reading literacy scores using ANCOVA, with economic, social, and cultural status as the covariate.

What finding does the study report about bilingual versus monolingual students?

When economic, social, and cultural status is controlled, monolingual students show higher reading literacy scores than bilingual students. The paper discusses possible reasons and suggests potential solutions.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by McQueen