scholarly journals Preschool predictors of learning to read and spell in an additional language: a two-wave longitudinal study in a multilingual context

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Wealer ◽  
Silke Fricke ◽  
Ariana Loff ◽  
Pascale M. J. Engel de Abreu
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
First Language ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Rapid Automatized Naming ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Letter Sound ◽  
Reading And Spelling

AbstractThe study explores whether foundational skills of reading and spelling in preschool (age 5–6) predict literacy skills cross-linguistically in an additional language in Grade 1 (age 6–7). A sample of linguistically diverse preschool children completed tasks of phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge, verbal-short term memory, rapid automatized naming, and lexical knowledge in the language of preschool instruction Luxembourgish. The children were followed-up in Grade 1 where literacy skills were assessed in the language of schooling, i.e., German, after five months of literacy instruction. German was a non-native language for all children. Longitudinal correlations confirm that individual differences in single word/pseudoword reading and spelling in German in Grade 1 can be predicted by all the foundational literacy skills that were assessed in Luxembourgish. Path analyses showed that phonological awareness in Luxembourgish emerged as the strongest unique predictor of Grade 1 literacy skills in German. The second unique preschool predictor of Grade 1 literacy skills was letter-sound knowledge. Results are consistent with the view that literacy development in an additional language builds upon similar building blocks as literacy acquisition in a first language, at least for languages that are typologically close. However, current findings suggest that respective contributions between predictors and literacy skills in children learning to read in an additional language may vary from patterns observed in studies with children acquiring literacy in their first language.

scholarly journals The Cognitive Profiles of Poor Readers/Good Spellers and Good Readers/Poor Spellers in a Consistent Orthography: A Retrospective Analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Manolitsis ◽  
George K. Georgiou
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Orthographic Knowledge ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Rapid Automatized Naming ◽  
Cognitive Profiles ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Poor Spellers ◽  
Reading And Spelling

Reading and spelling are closely related to each other, but empirical evidence shows that they can also dissociate. The purpose of this study was to examine the cognitive profiles of good readers/poor spellers and poor readers/good spellers in a relatively consistent orthography (Greek). One hundred forty children were administered measures of phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, phonological short-term memory, and orthographic knowledge in grades 1 and 2. Their performance in reading and spelling was assessed in grade 4. Two small groups of children exhibited dissociation between reading and spelling: seven children were identified as poor readers/good spellers and 11 children as good readers/poor spellers. The former group experienced severe deficits in both rapid naming and phonological awareness. The latter group experienced only mild deficits in orthographic knowledge. Although inefficient orthographic knowledge affects their spelling accuracy (Greek is inconsistent in the direction of spelling), it does not impact their reading fluency because they can recognize words by relying on partial cues.

scholarly journals Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Development of an Early Literacy App in Dhuwaya

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 106
Author(s):  
Gillian Wigglesworth ◽  
Melanie Wilkinson ◽  
Yalmay Yunupingu ◽  
Robyn Beecham ◽  
Jake Stockley
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
First Language ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Intercultural Development ◽  
Educational Challenges ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Surrounding Areas ◽  
Bilingual School ◽  
The Impact

Phonological awareness is a skill which is crucial in learning to read. In this paper, we report on the challenges encountered while developing a digital application (app) for teaching phonological awareness and early literacy skills in Dhuwaya. Dhuwaya is a Yolŋu language variety spoken in Yirrkala and surrounding areas in East Arnhem Land. Dhuwaya is the first language of the children who attend a bilingual school in which Dhuwaya and English are the languages of instruction. Dhuwaya and English have different phonemic inventories and different alphabets. The Dhuwaya alphabet is based on Roman alphabet symbols and has 31 graphemes (compared to 26 in English). The app was designed to teach children how to segment and blend syllables and phonemes and to identify common words as well as suffixes used in the language. However, the development was not straightforward, and the impact of the linguistic, cultural and educational challenges could not have been predicted. Amongst these was the inherent variation in the language, including glottal stops, the pronunciation of stops, the focus on syllables as a decoding strategy for literacy development and challenges of finding one-syllable words such as those initially used with English-speaking children. Another challenge was identifying culturally appropriate images which the children could relate to and which were not copyrighted. In this paper, we discuss these plus a range of other issues that emerged, identifying how these problems were addressed and resolved by the interdisciplinary and intercultural team.

Dual route and connectionist models of reading: an overview

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Coltheart
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Letter Identification ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Skilled Readers ◽  
Dual Route ◽  
Connectionist Approach ◽  
Letter Sound ◽  
Models Of Reading

Reading researchers seek to discover exactly what kinds of information-processing activities go on in our minds when we read; to discover what the structure and organization is of the cognitive system skilled readers have acquired from learning to read. Little is known about how the most elaborate aspects of this system work, but much has been learned about its basic building blocks such as letter identification, visual word recognition and knowledge of letter-sound rules. I contrast two approaches to theorizing about these basic reading components, the dual route approach and the connectionist approach, and offer reasons for believing that the dual route approach is to be preferred.

Phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and literacy development in Indonesian beginner readers and spellers

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
HEATHER WINSKEL ◽  
VIVILIA WIDJAJA
Keyword(s):  
Grain Size ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Developmental Stage ◽  
Literacy Development ◽  
Letter Knowledge ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Variable Nature ◽  
Early Acquisition ◽  
Phonological Unit ◽  
Reading And Spelling

The aim of the present study was to investigate the grain size predominantly used by children learning to read and spell in Indonesian. Indonesian is an orthographically transparent language, and the syllable is a salient unit. Tasks assessing various levels of phonological awareness as well as letter knowledge, reading familiar words and nonwords, and spelling stem and affixed words were administered to children in Grade 1 and subsequently 1 year later in Grade 2. The results in general indicate that the phoneme is the prominent phonological unit in the early acquisition of reading and spelling in Indonesian, but the syllable also plays a significant role, particularly when reading long multisyllabic affixed words. This highlights the variable nature of grain size used by beginners, which is dependent on developmental stage, the demands of the task administered, and the characteristics of the language and its orthography.

scholarly journals Tapping to Music Predicts Literacy Skills of First-Grade Children

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Csaba Kertész ◽  
Ferenc Honbolygó
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Rapid Automatized Naming ◽  
Reading Accuracy

The ability to synchronise one’s movements to the sound of a regular beat has been found to be associated with children’s language and reading abilities. Sensorimotor synchronisation or tapping performance can among other factors [e.g., working memory and rapid automatized naming (RAN)] predict phonological awareness and word reading accuracy and fluency of first graders. While tapping tasks that use a simple metronome sound are more often used, applying musical stimuli has the potential advantage of being more engaging and motivating for children. In the present study, we investigated whether tapping to a metronome beat or complex musical stimuli would predict phonological awareness and reading outcomes of Hungarian 6-7-year olds (N=37). We also measured participants’ general cognitive abilities (RAN, non-verbal intelligence and verbal working memory). Our results show that phonological awareness, spelling and reading accuracy were associated with the musical tasks while reading fluency was predicted by the metronome trials. Our findings suggest that complex musical tasks should be considered when investigating this age group, as they were, in general, more effective in predicting literacy outcomes.

Word- and Text-Level Reading Difficulties in Students With Dyslexia

2021 ◽  
pp. 073194872110372
Author(s):  
Elizabeth B. Meisinger ◽  
Ashley M. Breazeale ◽  
Lyle H. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Clinical Sample ◽  
Rapid Automatized Naming ◽  
Fluency And Comprehension ◽  
Text Reading

The purpose of this study was to examine whether group-based differences exist in word- and text-level reading in a clinical sample of students with dyslexia, and to shed light on the cognitive processes supporting these essential skills. Second- through seventh-grade students were administered a battery of standardized measures of cognitive processing skills (phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming [RAN], and verbal short-term memory), word reading skills (decoding and word identification), oral text reading (fluency and comprehension), and silent text reading (fluency and comprehension). Word- and text-level reading skills were used to place students into the following groups: text fluency deficit, globally impaired, and partially remediated. Results replicated the existence of a text fluency deficit group. Reader group differences in terms of cognitive processing skills were less pronounced than expected, with only phonological awareness differentiating among them. Phonological awareness and RAN emerged as the important contributors to reading skill, though their relative contributions varied across wordand text-level measures. Together, these results point to importance of considering text-level reading processes across modality in both research and clinical contexts.

First language acquisition and teaching

AILA Review ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 78-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madalena Cruz-Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Child Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Folk Beliefs

“First language acquisition” commonly means the acquisition of a single language in childhood, regardless of the number of languages in a child’s natural environment. Language acquisition is variously viewed as predetermined, wondrous, a source of concern, and as developing through formal processes. “First language teaching” concerns schooling in the language that is intended to become the child’s first (or “main”) one. Mainstream teaching practices similarly take languages as formal objects, focusing on literacy skills, so-called phonological awareness, and other teaching about the language. This article gives a first overview of folk beliefs associated with language acquisition and teaching, highlighting whether and how they can guide applied linguists’ concerns about child language development and early pedagogical practices.

Predicting Individual Differences in Reading and Spelling Skill With Artificial Script–Based Letter–Speech Sound Training

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (6) ◽  
pp. 552-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastián Aravena ◽  
Jurgen Tijms ◽  
Patrick Snellings ◽  
Maurits W. van der Molen
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Rapid Automatized Naming ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Sound Learning ◽  
Reading And Spelling

In this study, we examined the learning of letter–speech sound correspondences within an artificial script and performed an experimental analysis of letter–speech sound learning among dyslexic and normal readers vis-à-vis phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, reading, and spelling. Participants were provided with 20 min of training aimed at learning eight new basic letter–speech sound correspondences, followed by a short assessment of mastery of the correspondences and word-reading ability in this unfamiliar script. Our results demonstrated that brief training is moderately successful in differentiating dyslexic readers from normal readers in their ability to learn letter–speech sound correspondences. The normal readers outperformed the dyslexic readers for accuracy and speed on a letter–speech sound matching task, as well as on a word-reading task containing familiar words written in the artificial orthography. Importantly, the new artificial script-related measures were related to phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming and made a unique contribution in predicting individual differences in reading and spelling ability. Our results are consistent with the view that a fundamental letter–speech sound learning deficit is a key factor in dyslexia.

scholarly journals Behavioral and Brain Measures of Morphological Processing in Children With and Without Familial Risk for Dyslexia From Pre-school to First Grade

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Louleli ◽  
Jarmo A. Hämäläinen ◽  
Paavo H. T. Leppänen
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Morphological Processing ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Rapid Automatized Naming ◽  
School Age ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Age Reading

School-age reading skills are associated with and predicted by preschool-age cognitive risk factors for dyslexia, such as deficits in phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, letter knowledge, and verbal short-term memory. In addition, evidence exists that problems in morphological information processing could be considered a risk factor for dyslexia. In the present study, 27 children at pre-school age and the same 27 children at first grade age performed a morphological awareness task while their brain responses were measured with magnetoencephalography. Our aim was to examine how derivational morphology in Finnish language, and concomitant accuracy and reaction times are associated with first grade reading, in addition to the preschool age reading-related cognitive skills. The results replicated earlier findings; we found significant correlations between pre-school phonological skills and first-grade reading, pre-school rapid naming and first-grade reading, and pre-school verbal short-term memory and first-grade reading. The results also revealed a significant correlation between the pre-school children's reaction time for correctly derived words in the morphological task and the first-grade children's performance in rapid automatized naming for letters. No significant correlations were found between brain activation measures of morphological processing and first-grade reading.

scholarly journals The structure of preliteracy competence in children aged five to seven years

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Ivanka Bider Petelin ◽  
Martina Ozbič
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Verbal Memory ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Oblimin Rotation

Children´s early literacy development is a key contributor to later literacy skills and overall academic achievement. We have developed a set of tests that assesses preliteracy competence based on well-established foreign and Slovenian instruments or tools. A sample of 307 children aged from five to seven years were tested. A high Cronbach alpha coefficient (alpha = 0.87) indicates that the design instrument is an internally reliable instrument. This paper showcases and describes the differences in the development of preliteracy competence in different age group. The results show that children between 5 and 7 show the greatest development of the abilities to discern the initial sound, to analyse the sound, to notice the removal of sounds or syllables from a meaningless word, and to recall words on a given phoneme. Exploratory factor analysis with oblimin rotation revealed that preliteracy competence is best understood as a four-dimensional construct among children aged five to seven years. The first dimension is defined by higher-level phonological awareness, verbal memory, and rapid automatic naming, so it is metaphonology. The second factor, named perceptual language structure, expresses macro-linguistic structure (syllable, rhymes) and discrimination of words that sound similar. The third factor, named vocabulary, is saturated mostly by syllable analysis, vocabulary and word comprehension. The fourth factor is visual processing and capturing, which enable storage and refreshing of non-verbal information and the discrimination of symbols. The differences in development of preliteracy competency indicate intervention in the following areas: phonological awareness, verbal short-term memory, visual processing (discrimination and short-term memory) and vocabulary knowledge.

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