Individual differences in second language reading outcomes Caroline Erdos, Fred Genesee, Robert Savage, Corinne A. Haigh McGill University, Canada Abstract This study examined whether individual variance in letter-name knowledge and phonological processing assessed in English (L1) in kindergarten French immersion students predicts their French (L2) decoding and reading comprehension scores at the end of grade 1; whether L2 oral language factors also contribute significantly to predictions of variability in L2 reading outcomes beyond knowledge of the alphabet and phonological processing; and whether the Simple View of Reading – SVR – (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) applies cross-linguistically as well as intra-linguistically. We administered a comprehensive battery of predictor tests that have been correlated with L1 decoding and comprehension skills in English to English-speaking students in early total French immersion at the beginning and end of kindergarten. Tests of word and pseudo-word decoding and reading comprehension in French were given at the end of grade 1. The best kindergarten predictors of L2 decoding were knowledge of the alphabetic principle in English, phonological awareness in English, and knowledge of French at kindergarten entry. The same variables were significant predictors of French reading comprehension, with the added contribution of scores related to oral language skills in L1.The results provide support for the SVR intra-linguistically, but not cross-linguistically. Keywords decoding, oral language, predictors, reading comprehension 1. Individual differences in second language reading acquisition: a study of early French immersion students French immersion programs were first introduced in Canada in St Lambert, Quebec, in 1965. The St Lambert program was an early total immersion program in French so that the participating stu- dents received all instruction, including initial reading and writing instruction, in French from kindergarten until the end of grade 2 at which time English was introduced in the form of English language arts instruction. At the time that it was first introduced, immersion education was regarded as a radical departure from conventional education because, among other reasons, students received initial literacy instruction in a language that they were not proficient in. Research conducted on the Corresponding author: Caroline Erdos, McGill University Health Centre, The Montreal Children’s Hospital, Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Room A-424, 2300 Tupper, Montreal, Quebec, H3H 1P3, Canada. Email: caroline.erdos@muhc.mcgill.ca Article International Journal of Bilingualism 15(1) 3–25 © The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1367006910371022 Ijb.sagepub.com