English Language Learning

The Program for International Reading Literacy Study, developed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) every 5 years, assesses the reading attainment of 4th grade students. Portugal participated in 1991 and then again in 2011. In the latter year, Portuguese students obtained a result slightly above the international mean computed for the 49 participating countries (Mullis, Martin, Foy, & Drucker, 2012). This chapter presents an analysis of the results for Portugal and describes the relationship between predictors of reading comprehension, such as home book reading before the start of compulsory education, and reading achievement. In addition, it contextualizes the results for Portugal in comparison with other countries and discusses them in light of what reading research has to say about how to create good readers.JRC.DDG.01-Econometrics and applied statistic