The Development of Reading in Children Who Speak English as a Second Language.

Patterns of reading development were examined in native English-speaking (L1) children and children who spoke English as a second language (ESL). Participants were 978 (790 L1 speakers and 188 ESL speakers) Grade 2 children involved in a longitudinal study that began in kindergarten. In kindergarten and Grade 2, participants completed standardized and experimental measures including reading, spelling, phonological processing, and memory. All children received phonological awareness instruction in kindergarten and phonics instruction in Grade 1. By the end of Grade 2, the ESL speakers' reading skills were comparable to those of L1 speakers, and ESL speakers even outperformed L1 speakers on several measures. The findings demonstrate that a model of early identification and intervention for children at risk is beneficial for ESL speakers and also suggest that the effects of bilingualism on the acquisition of early reading skills are not negative and may be positive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contribution of morphological awareness to Chinese-English biliteracy acquisition.

This study is an investigation of the contribution of morphological awareness in Chinese-English biliteracy acquisition. Comparable tasks in Chinese and English were administered to test children's skills in morphological awareness, phonological awareness, oral vocabulary, word reading, and reading comprehension. The results showed that after the effect of Chinese-based predictors had been accounted for, English morphological awareness of compound structure still contributed to variance in both character reading and reading comprehension in Chinese. This finding indicates a cross-language morphological transfer in acquisition of two distinct writing systems. The transfer from English L2 to Chinese L1 is due to the bilingual children's rapidly increasing English L2 skills in their primary school years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bilingualism, Language Proficiency, and Learning to Read in Two Writing Systems.

Two hundred and four 5- and 6-year-olds who were monolingual English-, bilingual English-Chinese-, or Chinese-speaking children beginning to learn English (2nd-language learners) were compared on phonological awareness and word decoding tasks in English and Chinese. Phonological awareness developed in response to language exposure and instruction but, once established, transferred across languages for both bilinguals and 2nd-language learners. In contrast, decoding ability developed separately for each language as a function of proficiency and instruction in that language and did not transfer to the other language. Therefore, there was no overall effect of bilingualism on learning to read: Performance depended on the structure of the language, proficiency in that language, and instructional experiences with that writing system. These results point to the importance of evaluating the features of the languages and instructional context in which children become biliterate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors related to English reading performance in children with Chinese as a first language: More evidence of cross-language transfer of phonological processing.

Parallel measures of phonological, syntactic, and orthographic processing skill and reading were administered in English and in Chinese to 65 children whose 1st language (L1) was Cantonese and whose 2nd language (L2) was English. Phonological skill was correlated across L1 and L2. Phonological skill in both L1 and L2 was correlated with L2 reading and contributed a unique variance to L2 reading, even though the children's L1 was not written in an alphabetic orthography, whereas the 2nd language had an alphabetic orthography. This research adds to a growing body of evidence for cross-language transfer of phonological processing in L2 learning of English-as-a-Second-Language students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do early talkers become early readers? Linguistic precocity, preschool language, and emergent literacy.

25 children, selected for verbal precocity at 20 mo of age, participated in a longitudinal study investigating predictors of later language and literacy skills. Although children remained verbally precocious, there was a low incidence of precocious reading. Exposure to instruction in letter names and sounds was a significant predictor of children's knowledge of print conventions, invented spelling, and phonological awareness at age 4? yrs. Frequency of story reading in the home and child engagement in a story reading episode at age 24 mo were significant predictors of children's language ability at age 2? yrs and 4? yrs and knowledge of print conventions at age 4? yrs. It is concluded that story reading with parents as well as literacy instruction contributes to the development of emergent literacy in verbally precocious children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of phonological awareness to reading disability in children and adults.

Research has shown that for young children, success at learning to read is related to the extent to which they are aware of the phonological structure of spoken language. We determined that this relation is also evident in older children (third graders) and in adults who have had considerable reading instruction. Differences in phonological awareness, measured on three tasks, accounted for much of the variance between good readers and poor readers at both age levels. In contrast, no correspondence was found between reading ability and performance on a nonspeech task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of Viewing the Television Program Between the Lions on the Emergent Literacy Skills of Young Children.

Does viewing Between the Lions, an educational television series featuring literacy instruction, improve the emergent literacy skills of kindergarten and first-grade children? Do improvements vary as a function of the child's initial reading risk status? In this study, higher word recognition and standardized reading test scores were noted for all viewers compared with nonviewers. In addition, significantly higher means and accelerated slopes for phonemic awareness and letter-sound tasks were found for viewers compared with nonviewers. Even so, improvements in literacy skills (i.e., speech to print, word building, concepts of print) varied, mostly favoring moderately at-risk to not-at-risk kindergarten children who viewed the program. Kindergarten children at great risk and first graders did not benefit as much from the program. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of reading and spelling abilities in first- and second-language learners.

This study examined the basic literacy skills and related processes of 1st- through 4th-grade children speaking English as a 1st language (L1) and English as a 2nd language (ESL). The performances of the L1 and ESL children on phonological awareness, word and pseudoword reading, and word and pseudoword spelling tasks were highly similar. The ESL children were at an advantage with regard to lexical access but performed more poorly on verbal working memory and syntactic awareness tasks. The results suggest that the main processes underlying L1 children's basic reading ability in Grades 1 and 2, namely phonological awareness and lexical access, are of equal importance for ESL children. Phonological awareness remained the strongest predictor of word reading ability for L1 and ESL children in Grades 3 and 4. However, the processes involved in L1 and ESL word reading and spelling appeared to vary at other points. Verbal working memory and syntactic awareness were found to be of importance for the word reading and spelling abilities of L1 children but not for ESL children. Lexical access was found to be of more importance for ESL children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training phonological skills and letter knowledge in children at risk for dyslexia: A comparison of three kindergarten intervention programs.

The authors compared the effects of 3 kindergarten intervention programs on at-risk children's subsequent reading and spelling skills. From a sample of 726 screened kindergarten children, 138 were selected as children potentially at risk for dyslexia and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 training conditions: (a) letter-sound training, (b) phonological awareness training, and (c) combined training in phonological awareness and letter knowledge. A control group of 115 unselected ("normal") kindergarten children was recruited to evaluate the training effects. Results indicated that the combined training yielded the strongest effects on reading and spelling in Grades 1 and 2. Thus, these findings confirm the phonological linkage hypothesis in that combining phonological awareness training with instruction in letter-sound knowledge has more powerful effects on subsequent literacy achievement than phonological awareness training alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speech perception, vocabulary, and the development of reading skills in english among Korean- and English-speaking children.

This study examined the roles of speech perception and phonological processing in reading and spelling acquisition for native and nonnative speakers of English in the 1st grade. The performance of 50 children (23 native English speakers and 27 native Korean speakers) was examined on tasks assessing reading and spelling, phonological processing, speech perception, and receptive vocabulary at the start and end of the school year. Korean-speaking children outperformed native English speakers on each of the literacy measures at the start and end of 1st grade, despite differences in their initial phonological representations and processing skills. Furthermore, speech perception and phonological processing were important contributors to early literacy skills, independent of oral language skills, for children from both language groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phonological Processing Skills and Early Reading Abilities in Hong Kong Chinese Kindergarteners Learning to Read English as a Second Language.

The present 9-month longitudinal study investigated relations between Chinese native language phonological processing skills and early Chinese and English reading abilities among 227 kindergarteners in Hong Kong. Phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and short-term verbal memory differed in their relations to concurrent and subsequent Chinese and English word recognition. The significant bidirectional relations between phonological awareness and Chinese reading ability remained even after accounting for the variance due to age, vocabulary, and visual skills performance. When all predictors were considered simultaneously, only phonological awareness remained a significant predictor of Chinese and English reading abilities both concurrently and longitudinally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-language transfer of phonological awareness.

Investigated the factors influencing the English word identification performance of Spanish-speaking beginning readers. Beginning readers were administered tests of letter naming, Spanish phonological awareness, Spanish and English word recognition, and Spanish and English oral proficiency. Multiple-regression analyses revealed that the readers' performance on English word and pseudoword recognition tests was predicted by the levels of both Spanish phonological awareness and Spanish word recognition, thus indicating cross-language transfer. In contrast, neither English nor Spanish oral proficiency affected word-identification performance. Results suggest a specific way in which 1st-language learning and experience can aid children in the beginning stages of reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Direct and mediated influences of home literacy and literacy interest on prereaders' oral vocabulary and early written language skill.

Home literacy (reports of children's literacy activities at home and parents' storybook title recognition) and literacy interest (children's reports of feelings about literacy activities) were identified as 2 independent sources of literacy experience among 92 kindergarten prereaders. Together, they accounted for significant variance in oral vocabulary (21%) and on a letter-name and letter-sound measure of early written language (18%). Entering phonological awareness first in hierarchical regression eliminated home literacy's unique contribution to written language but not to vocabulary, indicating that home literacy is directly related to vocabulary but that phonological awareness mediates its relationship with written language. Literacy interest was unrelated to phonological awareness and accounted for unique variance in written language only. Discussion focused on print exposure versus explicit print-sound instruction in home literacy activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of two types of phonological awareness training on word learning in kindergarten children.

The effects of 2 types of oral-language training programs on development of phonological awareness skills and word learning ability were examined. One of the training programs provided explicit instruction on both analytic (segmenting) and synthetic (blending) phonological tasks; the other program trained synthetic skills only. Effects of these programs were contrasted with a language-experience control group that received no phonologically oriented training. 48 kindergarten children participated in small-group training sessions 3 times per week for 7–8 wks. Children who received both analytic and synthetic training improved significantly on both types of skills, whereas children receiving the synthetic skills training alone improved only on blending skills. Only children receiving training on both types of tasks showed a positive training effect for the word learning or reading analog task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental models of learning to read Chinese words.

What is the nature of learning to read Chinese across grade levels? This study tested 199 kindergartners, 172 second graders, and 165 fifth graders on 12 different tasks purportedly tapping constructs representing phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic processing, and subcharacter processing. Confirmatory factor analyses comparing alternative models of these 4 constituents of Chinese word reading revealed different patterns of metalinguistic underpinnings of children's word recognition across grade levels: The best-fitting model for kindergartners represented a print–nonprint dichotomy of constructs. In contrast, 2nd graders showed a fine-grained sensitivity to all 4 hypothesized constructs. Finally, the best-fitting model for 5th graders consisted of a phonological sensitivity construct and a broad lexical morphological–orthographic processing construct. Findings suggest that Hong Kong Chinese children progress from a basic understanding of print versus nonprint to a diversified sensitivity to varied word-reading skills, to a focus on meaning-based word recognition, to the relative exclusion of phonological sensitivity in more advanced readers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The intriguing role of spanish language vocabulary knowledge in predicting English reading comprehension.

This study explored a holistic model of English reading comprehension among a sample of 135 Spanish-English bilingual Latina and Latino 4th-grade students This model took into account Spanish language reading skills and language of initial literacy instruction. Controlling for language of instruction, English decoding skill, and English oral language proficiency, the authors explored the effects of Spanish language alphabetic knowledge, fluency, vocabulary knowledge, and listening comprehension on English reading comprehension. Results revealed a significant main effect for Spanish vocabulary knowledge and an interaction between Spanish vocabulary and English fluency, such that faster English readers benefited more from Spanish vocabulary knowledge than their less fluent counterparts. This study demonstrates the existence of literary skills transfer from the 1st to the 2nd language, as well as limits on such transfer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer among phonological tasks in kindergarten: Essential instructional content.

The construct of phonological awareness was explored by examining the effects of instructional treatments on the development of specific and generalized phonological skills for kindergarten children. Sixty-six children with low phonological manipulation skills were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatments or a control condition: (a) auditory blending and segmenting with limited letter–sound correspondences; (b) a global array of phonological tasks, with letter–sound correspondences; or (c) only letter–sound instruction. Children in both treatments showed improved phonological abilities, which transferred to a reading analog task. Treated children achieved a level of phonological awareness comparable to that of higher skilled children. The combination of blending and segmenting instruction encouraged generalized phonological awareness; however, the ability to blend and segment accounted for more variance in reading analog scores than did other phonological tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Treating the core deficits of developmental dyslexia: Evidence of transfer of learning after phonologically- and strategy-based reading training programs.

Individuals with dyslexia have difficulty generalizing from word identification training. This study compared 2 forms of word identification training to promote transfer of learning by children with dyslexia. 62 children were randomly assigned to 1 of the training programs or to a study skills control program. One program trained phonological analysis and blending skills and provided direct instruction of letter–sound correspondences; the other trained the acquisition, use, and monitoring of 4 metacognitive decoding strategies. Results provided clear evidence of transfer of learning after treatment of the core reading deficits of these children. Both training approaches were associated with large positive effects, transfer on several measures, and generalized achievement gains. The phonological program resulted in greater generalized gains in the phonological domain and the strategy program in broader-based transfer for real words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of instruction in learning to read: Preventing reading failure in at-risk children.

First and 2nd graders (N?=?285) receiving Title 1 services received 1 of 3 kinds of classroom reading programs: direct instruction in letter–sound correspondences practiced in decodable text (direct code); less direct instruction in systematic sound–spelling patterns embedded in connected text (embedded code); and implicit instruction in the alphabetic code while reading connected text (implicit code). Children receiving direct code instruction improved in word reading at a faster rate and had higher word-recognition skills than those receiving implicit code instruction. Effects of instructional group on word recognition were moderated by initial levels of phonological processing and were most apparent in children with poorer initial phonological processing skills. Group differences in reading comprehension paralleled those for word recognition but were less robust. Groups did not differ in spelling achievement or in vocabulary growth. Results show advantages for reading instructional programs that emphasize explicit instruction in the alphabetic principle for at-risk children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short- and long-term effects of training phonological awareness in kindergarten: evidence from two German studies

Two training studies replicated and extended a Scandinavian study by Lundberg, Frost, and Petersen (1988). In Study 1, a 6-month metalinguistic training program was given to kindergartners (mean age: 5 years 7 months) who were later compared to a control group in the regular kindergarten program. Tests of phonological awareness and other metalinguistic and cognitive variables were given before and after training; a metalinguistic transfer test was given after training. Reading and spelling skills were assessed at the end of Grades 1 and 2, respectively. The training program was improved and monitored more closely in Study 2. Both studies revealed short- and long-term effects, consistent with Lundberg et al. (1988) and extending findings from Anglo-American and Scandinavian populations to German children.