Children from Low Socioeconomic Status Families in Greece: Can Learning and Language Aptitude Predict Language Achievement?

Abstract

In recent years it has been argued that for compensating children's difficulties in school achievement their underlying cognitive and learning strengths and weaknesses should be considered. This requires a different approach to evaluating children's difficulties in school learning, which should include not only their school achievement, but also the underlying cognitive abilities or aptitudes. The aim of this study was to examine if underachievement or low language school achievement of children from low socioeconomic status families can be predicted by their learning and language aptitude. One hundred and ten 10-12 years old primary school students from the area of Macedonia, Greece, were assessed with a psychometric standardized learning aptitude test (DTLA-4) and a psychometric standardized language aptitude test LaTo Level II. Their language school achievement was assessed with an informal language test based on the school curriculum. Research findings indicated that both learning, and language aptitude may predict students' oral and written language achievement. More specifically, general mental and language aptitude significantly predicted total language school achievement (p=.006 & p=.000), the receptive language system significantly predicted reading comprehension achievement (p=.000), the organization language system significantly predicted argumentative achievement (p=.002), the expressive language system significantly predicted written expression achievement (p=.002), the semantic language modality significantly predicted written expression achievement (p=.005), and the morphological language modality significantly predicted syntax and spelling achievement (p=.001 & p=.004). Recommendations highlight the importance of students’ difficulties early identification and the critical role of school-based evaluation teams.

Received: 29 September 2024 | Revised: 22 November 2024 | Accepted: 18 December 2024

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Raw data were generated at the Faculty of Education, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on request.

Author Contribution Statement

Constantinos Vouyoukas: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Data curation. Maria Tzouriadou: Conceptualization, Validation, Writing - original draft. Eleni Anagnostopoulou: Investigation, Writing - original draft.