Focus on 10th grade students with learning problems: What influences their achievements?

Abstract

Abstract There is an increased interest in exploring the interaction between knowledge of foreign languages, Reading and Mathematics and correlation of students' achievement in Hungary (e. g. Szirmai, 2003; Garami, 2009; Hegedűs & Sebestyén, 2019). Special learner groups are rarely put in the focus of research, therefore in our paper, we examine achievements in Reading and Mathematics of students with learning disorder or integration, learning and behavioural difficulties (ILBD). We examine data in different types of classes, for example, in special classes with a high number of foreign language lessons. We analyse the data of National Competency Measurement (NCM) of 2019 in the 10th grade (N = 83,751) with SPSS. In this database, there are 3,029 students with learning disorder and 4,284 students with ILBD. 5.9% of the first group and 9% of the latter group learn in classes with a high number of foreign language lessons per week. According to our results, these students have better competence results from Reading and Mathematics than students who learn in classes with “normal” curriculum, and lower achievements than students in classes with a special curriculum.