ABSTRACT
Identifying which students are making slower progress in learning a new language because of a learning diffi culty is not always straightforward, and it may seem to be a challenging task to disentangle fi rst language interference and low level of language profi ciency from learning diffi culties. The aim of this chapter is to give a comprehensive overview of the methods and tools of assessing specifi c learning diffi culties (SpLDs) in monolingual and bilingual settings and to show that reliable and accurate identifi cation of SpLDs is possible even in these contexts. The main focus here will be on identifying word-and text-level reading diffi culties among multilingual speakers, but issues related to diagnosing spelling and writing problems will also be covered briefl y. After the defi nition of the constructs of assessment, identifi cation and diagnosis, a detailed description of the process of assessment of literacy skills will be provided. Next, I will discuss the determinants of successful word-decoding and text comprehension across languages, and based on the fi ndings in this fi eld, the consequences for the identifi cation of SpLDs in bi/multilingual speakers will be drawn. The chapter will conclude with a review of current efforts directed at developing new means of assessment of learning diffi culties in multilingual settings.
