Málfríður - 15.03.2010, Blaðsíða 17

Point-biserial correlations showed all of the test
items to be acceptable, and Cronbach’s Alpha statis-
tical calculation showed the test itself to be reliable,
at .61. The following analyses are based on a random
sampling of 171 of the approximately 300 tests. In
other words, the “sample” here is more than half of
the whole population, so there is no doubt that it
is representative. As mentioned above, only the first
six items, comprising a possible 8-point score, will
be analysed. The mean score of the participants was
4.85, or about 61%.
Distribution of the scores was as follows:
• Scores 6 to 8 (at least 75% correct): 64 students,
or over 37% of the participants.
• Scores 4 or 5 (50% to 62.5% correct): 69 students,
or over 40% of the participants.
• Scores 0 to 3 (25% to 37.5% correct): 38 students,
or over 22% of the participants.
So over three-quarters of the students seem to be able
to read academic English with at least satisfactory
results, scoring 50% or higher (and almost half of
these students scored very high indeed). However, a
good fifth of the students seem to have real trouble
with the text, scoring under 50%. These results are
in line with those Hellekjær in Norway, who found
that about 30% of the students in his study had trou-
ble reading academic English, and with other inter-
national studies of university students (e.g. Ward,
2009, who reports a Thai university study).
But are we witnessing an English reading problem
here, or a reading problem? In reporting the results
of the 2000 PISA study on reading in the mother
tongue (OECD, 2004), which was administered to 15-
year olds in many countries, Elísabet Arnadóttir and
Guðmundur B. Kristmundsson (2004) note that 14%
of the Icelandic participants exhibited reading levels
so low that employment involving any reading would
be difficult for them to pursue (See also OECD, 2004,
p. 5). But they add that if the more stringent criteria
used by some other nations were applied to deter-
mine the threshold that would impact employment
opportunities, then about 45% of Icelandic students
would fall within this category:
Samkvæmt niðurstöðum PISA-rannsóknarinnar
eru um 14% unglinga það illa læsir að þeir eiga í
verulegum erfiðleikum með að lesa og líklegt er
að þeir geti vart stundað störf þar sem eitthvað
reynir á lestur, þó í litlu sé.
Sumar þjóðir, sem þátt tóku í þessari rannsókn,
setja viðmiðunarmark örðugleika nokkuð hátt og
ef það viðmið er notað hér falla um 45% nemen-
da innan þeirra marka. (Elísabet Arnadóttir and
Guðmundur B. Kristmundsson, 2004 p.23).
In their recent wide ranging study of literacy among
Icelandic adults, Elísabet Arnadóttir, Guðmundur B.
Kristmundsson & Amalía Björnsdóttir (2006) note
that among the study’s sample of adult Icelanders,
51% of the 127 participants who had vocational or
secondary school education reported wanting to
improve their reading speed; 30% wanted to improve
their reading comprehension; and 25% wanted to
improve their skill in dealing with text and analys-
ing its content (2006, p.39). It seems clear that there
are many secondary school graduates who feel that
their first language reading skills do not meet their
needs.
At this point, it should be noted that many research-
ers have reiterated Cummins’ (1991) point that there
are “consistently significant correlations between L1
and L2 reading abilities” (p.77). Cummins went on
to postulate that literacy-related skills, or “academic
proficiency” skills are interdependent across lan-
guages:
To the extent that instruction in Lx is effective in
promoting [academic] proficiency in Lx, transfer
of this proficiency to Ly will occur provided there
is adequate exposure to Ly (either in school or
environment) and adequate motivation to learn
Ly (Cummins, 1991, p.77).
If we think of Icelandic as Lx and English as Ly, it
can probably be assumed that Icelanders have “ade-
quate motivation to learn Ly”. Whether they have
“adequate exposure to Ly” is an essential research
question. But the point is moot if academic profi-
ciency is lacking in many Icelanders’ mother tongue,
for in that case there is nothing for them to transfer from
Lx to Ly!
So far, I have argued that English is more than sim-
ply another foreign language in a number of coun-
tries, including Iceland. Exemplifying its importance
is the fact that English reading proficiency is now
crucial in university studies. I have gone on to show
that English reading skills may be lacking among a
sizable section of the Icelandic university popula-
tion at the start of their studies, as also seems to be
the case in Norway, to take one example. However, I
speculate that what we see in Iceland may not be so
much an English deficit as a reading deficit or even an
academic proficiency deficit.
In support of the last possibility, it could be that
MÁLFRÍÐUR 1