The Relationship between Bilingualism, Kindergarten Years and English Literacy of First Graders in Jordan

This study aims at investigating the relationship between bilingualism, and kindergarten enrolment years before formal schooling on the one hand, and learning English as a new language among the first graders in Jordan on the other. The study was conducted over one whole semester detecting the progress of a sample of 1012 first graders in public schools in several areas in Jordan where there are communities who speak more than one language the results revealed that students who did not attend KG seemed to be low achievers, while bilinguals achievement was lower than monolinguals at this level. On the other hand bilingual students who attended KG for one or two years achieved a slightly better results but statistically insignificant in learning English. These results were interpreted in the light of language distance and the language behaviour of code shifting from one language to another.