Using the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) in a bilingual context: Evidence from a Pakistani study

Jehanzeb Rashid Cheema
George Mason University, United States
Saulat Pervez
International Institute of Islamic Thought, United States

In this study we evaluated the performance of the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) in a sample of 189 students in Grades 3 and 6 who attended a middle-tier private school in Karachi, Pakistan, where the medium of instruction was English (L2) and the majority language was Urdu (L1). We took a holistic approach and employed several statistical techniques to obtain a consensus about items that did not perform well in the sample and thus need more probing regarding their application in the local context. Our main finding is that ERAS can be used, albeit with more attention to the specific Pakistani educational setting, to measure reading attitudes of Pakistani students in grades comparable to elementary school in the U.S. Implications are discussed.
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Authors: Jehanzeb Rashid Cheema PhD is an applied research methodologist and currently works as an Associate Professor at the Costello College of Business, George Mason University, Virginia, USA. Jehanzeb has peer-reviewed publications on topics such as student literacy, self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and enjoyment of reading. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2994-6679 Email: jcheema1@gmu.edu Saulat Pervez is a researcher at the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Virginia, USA. She has more than a decade of experience in the private schooling sector in Karachi, Pakistan, which is the subject and site of her research in postcolonial educational systems influencing social class, language disparities, and reading attitudes. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8468-9025 Email: saulat@iiit.org Please cite as: Cheema, J. R. & Pervez, S. (2024). Using the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) in a bilingual context: Evidence from a Pakistani study. Issues in Educational Research, 34(3), 871-887. http://www.iier.org.au/iier34/cheema.pdf