An investigation of reading literacy in monolingual and bilingual elementary students in Chaharmahal Bakhtyari province

The present study investigates literacy between two groups (a bilingual and a monolingual) of fourth graders in elementary schools. The first group, native speakers of Lori, were taught in Persian. The second group, native speakers of Persian, are taught in Persian. The data collecting instrument was PLRIS(2006) questionnaire. The statistical population consisted of 13745 students, of which a sample of 240 was selected through multi-step cluster sampling. The performance of the groups in reading comprehension and making inferences was compared. The results showed that the monolingual group outperform in all aspects. Since native language plays a significant role in literacy, the implication is that native speakers of the local language should be employed as teachers at least for the first three years of primary education.