To comprehensively assess the literacy skills of multilingual students, it seems necessary to gauge these skills for both their first and second languages. In order to do so, testing methods comparable across different languages are needed. This paper reports the first results of such a method used in different language versions in the context of the study “Multilingual Development: a Longitudinal Perspective” (MEZ). The German-language version of the Reading Speed and Comprehension Test for Grades 5 to 12 (LGVT 5–12+) served as the basis. To enable assessment of reading skills in multiple languages, Russian and Turkish adaptations were created by closely following the design principles of the original test. In the first part of this paper, we present the established German version of this test as well as the parallel versions, which are also in German, developed specifically for the MEZ study. In the second part, we report on the concrete approach used to develop the construction of the Russian and Turkish versions of the test. Further, we report the first results of the comparability of methods and texts used across different languages. Preliminary analyses show that the tests used varied in difficulty, both within a language and comparing across languages. Based on these results, we discuss further steps in the development of the method, which are necessary to make the texts comparable so that both intra-individual changes over time and differences between first and second language reading skills can be validly mapped.
To comprehensively assess the literacy skills of multilingual students, it seems necessary to gauge these skills for both their first and second languages. In order to do so, testing methods comparable across different languages are needed. This paper reports the first results of such a method used in different language versions in the context of the study “Multilingual Development: a Longitudinal Perspective” (MEZ). The German-language version of the Reading Speed and Comprehension Test for Grades 5 to 12 (LGVT 5–12+) served as the basis. To enable assessment of reading skills in multiple languages, Russian and Turkish adaptations were created by closely following the design principles of the origi- nal test. In the first part of this paper, we present the established German version of this test as well as the parallel versions, which are also in German, developed specifically for the MEZ study. In the second part, we report on the concrete approach used to develop the construction of the Russian and Turkish versionsof the test. Further, we report the first results of the comparability of methods and texts used across different languages. Preliminary analyses show that the tests used varied in difficulty, both within a language and comparing across languages. Based on these results, we discuss further steps in the development of the method, which are necessary to make the texts comparable so that both intra-individual changes over time and differences between first and second lan- guage reading skills can be validly mapped.