The relationship between language and reading in bilingual English-Arabic children Lama K. Farran • Gary E. Bingham • Mona W. Matthews Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Abstract The connection between language and reading is well established across many languages studied to date. Little is known, however, about the role of language in reading in Arabic—a Semitic language characterized by diglossia—in which the oral and written varieties differ across language components. This study examined the relationship among multiple components of language, namely, phonology, morphology, and vocabulary and reading outcomes in 83 bilingual English-Arabic children. Results revealed associations between phonological awareness skills across English and Arabic. These associations did not hold for morphological awareness skills. Results also revealed that for Arabic and English, phonological awareness predicted word and pseudoword reading accuracy and vocabulary predicted reading comprehension. These findings are consistent with the tenets of the extended version of the Triangle Model of reading, which underscores the importance of multiple language components in predicting reading outcomes. Implications for future research, early intervention, and instruction with bilingual children are highlighted. Keywords Arabic Á Bilingualism Á Connectionism Á Diglossia Á Language Á Morphological awareness Á Phonological awareness Á Pseudoword decoding Á Reading comprehension Á Triangle model of reading Á Vocabulary Á Word reading Introduction Reading is a language-based process (Catts & Kamhi, 2005; Nation & Snowling, 2004). Essentially, the speech children hear and the language they use in their everyday communication form the foundation for reading development. Perfetti L. K. Farran (&) Á G. E. Bingham Á M. W. Matthews Department of Early Childhood Education, Georgia State University, 30 Pryor Street, Suite 550, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA e-mail: lama_farran@bellsouth.net 123 Read Writ DOI 10.1007/s11145-011-9352-5