Reading development of Chinese-English bilingual early elementary children: Variations by student sociocultural characteristics during COVID-19 in Canada

In this two-year longitudinal study, multiple analytical methods of analysis were used to examine the development of reading comprehension, decoding, and oral receptive vocabulary among Chinese-English bilinguals (N = 135) in Canada during grades 2 and 3, as well as the sociocultural factors influencing their academic performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. One-sample t-tests revealed that while Chinese-Canadian children's reading comprehension and decoding skills were comparable to monolingual norms, their English receptive vocabulary significantly lagged behind the normative mean. Independent samples t-tests indicated a pandemic-related decline in reading skills over two years, with significant reductions in decoding, particularly among Mandarin-speaking children. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) analyses showed that gender significantly moderated reading comprehension development, while family socioeconomic status (SES) was strongly associated with growth in decoding and oral receptive vocabulary. These findings highlight the need for post-pandemic recovery efforts focused on vocabulary development and decoding support, particularly for children from intersectionally disadvantaged backgrounds.