Arabic-speakers at disadvantage on pyschometric exam, says study

The reading speed for native Arabic speakers is slower than that of Hebrew speakers — a factor which may impair their ability to excel on Israel’s psychometric exam, a study published by the National Institute for Testing and Evaluation showed.

The findings are based on 119 participants, half of them Arabic speakers, who underwent general cognitive tests, and were asked to read texts both aloud and to themselves in their native tongue. The study found that Arabic speakers read 200 words aloud 7 seconds slower than their Hebrew-speaking counterparts, and their silent reading was found to be 16 seconds longer.

Analogous to the American SAT, the Psychometric Entrance Test is a pre-university standardized test in English, mathematics, and verbal reasoning.

The study, conducted by Zur Karelitz, Anat Ben-Simon, Rafiq Ibrahim, and Zohar Evyatar, and published in September, argued that the complex structure of Arabic writing, as well as the fact that Arabic language is a diglossia — meaning that there are disparities between its informal spoken dialect and the formal codified writing — accounts for these differences. The researchers argued that cognitive ability and socioeconomic factors did not play into the different reading speeds.

“Hebrew-speakers read texts, on average, more quickly and more precisely than Arabic-speakers,” the study said.

The study may shed light on a 100-point disparity in psychometric grades between Hebrew-speakers and Arabic-speakers, as the timed test requires participants to read and respond quickly.

The researchers were divided on whether the results of the study would require a reformulation of the test. Ibrahim, of Haifa University, argued that the results “require, without a doubt, a readjustment of the psychometric exam in Arabic,” according to the Haaretz daily. He said that on top of the differences in reading time, the use of texts translated into Arabic as part of the exam made the texts longer by 16% than those translated into Hebrew.

Meanwhile, Ben-Simon, who is affiliated with the institute that published the study, said the findings were “not so significant.” Ben-Simon stated that the use of translated texts, rather than native Hebrew or Arabic works, was aimed at keeping it “neutral” and to avoid giving one group a cultural advantage.

“We are aware of the complaints by the Arabic-speakers, and therefore two years ago, we decided that there will be three fewer questions on the verbal reasoning section in Arabic than the Hebrew version,” she said.

“Adding five minutes to the test time won’t significantly change the grades,” she added. “It might make it easier, and add a few points, but it won’t erase a 100-point difference.”