Abstract
The purpose of this brief three-year research study is to assess the reading ability in English, as a foreign language (FL), among eighth-grade learners in Kazakhstan. Reading literacy plays a crucial role in the learning process and increases knowledge of human beings across academic domains (see OECD, 2018). This study examined the reading and literacy skills of eighth-grade students in secondary schools in Pavlodar. The number of participants varied during the computer-based assessment from 2018 to 2020. The instruments for data collection were online tests in English as a FL administered by the Electronic Diagnostic Assessment System (eDia) and a questionnaire with background items adapted from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (OECD, 2018). English reading tests have been previously modified and validated (see Nikolov & Csapó, 2010), although additional specific materials on the country's cultural features have been used. The reliability of the English language tests during the three-year assessment was very high, as measured by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the 8th grade in 2018 (α = 0.96), and in 2019 and 2020 (α = 0.94). The results revealed no significant gender differences in English language test performance among eighth-grade students over three years (p > 0.05). However, the small effect size of the first/native language during the three-year assessment study in eighth grade highlighted the importance of teaching reading skills in English as a foreign language for eighth-grade students in Kazakhstan.