This article reviews the origins and use of the terms quasi-experiment and natural experiment. It demonstrates how the terms conflate whether variation in the independent variable of interest falls short of random with whether researchers find, rather than intervene to create, that variation. Using the lens of assignment--the process driving…

Purpose: There is a growing body of research on developmental language disorder (DLD), but very few studies have focused on the role of cognitive abilities in adulthood. The present study explored the relationship between cognition and language in adults with and without DLD. Method: Sixty participants, 30 language typical (LT) adults and 30 with…

The current study explores the relationship between metalinguistic awareness -- specifically phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and orthographic knowledge -- and vocabulary knowledge within and across two languages, German (L1) and Arabic (L2), in bilingual children in Germany (N = 58). Phonological awareness emerged as a predictor…

This study investigates the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and the vocabulary range of tertiary-level EFL learners, a crucial yet unexplored area, particularly in developing countries. Therefore, by applying Bourdieu's (1986) cultural capital theory, this study aims to identify the extent to which SES can predict the vocabulary…

In this study, we examined to what extent orthographic skills, phonological processing, oral vocabulary, and word memory accounted for variance in reading comprehension among upper-elementary school children with and without dyslexia. The tasks came from the Tests of Dyslexia (TOD). Data from 753 participants (typically developing n = 575;…

The current research used the Proficient Academic Reader (PAR) framework to explore whether reading strategies, task awareness, and motivation predicted college students' literacy skills over and above foundational skills (e.g., decoding, vocabulary). Specifically, the current research investigated the unique contribution of the PAR constructs to…

This study investigates the role of diglossic and orthographic features in reading comprehension in Arabic. Specifically, it probes the independent contribution of language, metalinguistic, and decoding skills in the spoken language and in Standard Arabic to reading comprehension in the "abjad" writing system of Arabic. A sample of 112…

The purpose of this study was to examine the memory abilities of bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). We compare groups across short-term, working memory, and declarative long-term systems in the verbal and nonverbal domains. The study also analyzes how memory abilities are related to children's expressive and…

With a focus on content-area reading, this study aimed to (a) understand the sources and prevalence of concurrent and specific difficulties in word-level skills, vocabulary, and knowledge among adolescent struggling readers (ASRs) and (b) explore the relations among reading skills, profiles, and reading comprehension. A dual-measure screening…

Purpose: This study examined how subgroups of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) perform on theory of mind (ToM) tasks and comprehend mental terms. Method: Eighty Hebrew-speaking children aged 5-6 years were divided into four groups: children with DLD, ASD and language impairment (ASD-LI), and…

Background: Research has demonstrated that distinct oral language skills contribute unique variance to text comprehension in students from second grade onward. This study examined these relationships for kindergarten students whose comprehension is often assumed to be determined by word decoding skills. Method: Eighty-eight kindergarten students…

Purpose: Although children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are known to have difficulties with emergent literacy skills, few available studies have examined emergent literacy skills in Arabic-speaking children with DLD. Even though Arabic language characteristics, such as diglossia and orthographic structure, influence the acquisition…

Factors which impact bilingual language development can often interact with different language features. The current study teases apart the impact of internal and external factors (chronological age, length of exposure, L2 richness, L2 use at home, maternal education and maternal L2 proficiency) across linguistic domains and features (vocabulary,…

Background: Executive function (EF) is significantly associated with reading comprehension outcomes, yet the interaction between EF and critical language skills (including vocabulary, morphological awareness (MA) and syntactic knowledge), across these levels of reading comprehension (literal, inferential and evaluative comprehension) has rarely…

We examined how generalized and mathematics-specific language skills predicted the word-problem performance of students with mathematics difficulty. Participants were 325 third-grade students in the southwestern United States who performed at or below the 25th percentile on a word-problem measure. We assessed generalized language skills in word…