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Mapping the Development of Cognitive, Linguistic and Early Literacy Abilities among Senior-Kindergarten Children of Ethiopian Immigrants in Israel

Micahl Shany and Esther Geva

Faculty of Education, Haifa University (2) OISE/University of Toronto egeva@oise.utoronto.ca

Abstract

The aim of the present research is to explore the cognitive, linguistic and early literacy abilities that hinder or enhance the development of literacy in senior-kindergarten children of Ethiopian immigrants in Israel. The research focused on Ethiopian children from families who immigrated to Israel in the 1980s and 90s, coming from an oral tradition society where over 90% of the population is illiterate (Bender, 1985; Shenkut, 1991). Sixty Ethiopian children and sixty children with Hebrew as L1 will were recruited from 10 different kindergartens in various low SES development towns, where one can find large Ethiopian communities. A task battery was developed comprising tests of verbal and nonverbal intelligence; general knowledge and volume of print exposure; oral language; measures of cognitive and linguistic processing; early literacy measures; and demographic and contextual information. Data collection of this battery of cognitive, linguistic, and literacy-related tasks is in its final stages. The analysis will focus on the relationships between parallel constructs in Hebrew and Amharic, on the similarities and differences between the Ethiopian-Israeli children and the children whose parents speak Hebrew as their L1, and indices of at-risk status that are common or unique to each language group. This knowledge will then serve as a vehicle for investigating the practical issues of accurately identifying at-risk learners among children of Ethiopian immigrants and for follow-up research on how the language, literacy achievement trajectories of and academic performance of Ethiopian-Israeli children can modified.

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