Assessment of English Reading Age through Reading Evaluation and Decoding System (READS) : A Measure of Effectiveness and Inequality in Malaysian ESL Education <Special Issue : Youth, Education, and Work>

Recent international comparative research on English proficiency found a strong positive correlation between a country's level of English language skills and its gross national income per capita. Considering the role of English as a lingua franca in the global exchange of goods, culture, information and innovations, a sufficient command of English is a basic requirement for almost the entire labour force in knowledge-based economies. A key foreign language competence is reading, which functions as a gateway to the world, enabling individuals to effectively participate and compete in a knowledge-based environment. Therefore, effectiveness of English as a Second Language (ESL) reading skills is essential to the success of both socio-cultural and economic development. A principal criterion of effectiveness is equal opportunity to the whole society to access formal education and to achieve academic success. In most education systems, however, the social background of students tends to have a major impact on academic achievement, to the extent that it may affect their whole educational and professional careers. The current study is based on empirical data about the reading age of 3,567 Malaysian secondary school students from various social backgrounds, obtained by the use of a standardised evaluation tool named READS. We found that less than half the students had attained the curriculum standard for ESL reading skills, as defined for their biological age. Moreover, significant disparities were found between the reading age of students by gender, income status and ethnicity, highlighting a substantial level of inequality which challenges the establishment of a knowledge-based economy.