Parent–child reading in English as a second language: Effects on language and literacy development of Chinese kindergarteners

This study investigated the effects of dialogic parent–child reading in English on 51 Hong Kong kindergarteners learning English as a second language. Children were pre‐tested on nonverbal IQ, reading interest and receptive vocabulary, word reading and phonological awareness in both Chinese and English. They were then assigned randomly to one of three conditions involving different levels of parent–child interactions: dialogic reading (DR), typical reading (TR) or control. Though inter‐group comparisons showed nonsignificant interaction effects across time among the three groups, intra‐group gains across the 12‐week intervention suggested that parent–child reading could enhance English word reading skills, while dialogic reading could promote phonological awareness in both Chinese and English. These results highlight the potential benefits of English parent–child reading and dialogic reading on children learning English as a second language, and the possibility of linguistic transfer from parent–child reading in English as a second language to Chinese as a first language.     

Child Miscues and Parental Feedback During Shared Alphabet Book Reading and Relations With Child Literacy Skills

We studied 52 parent–child dyads reading an alphabet book to examine the nature of children's miscues and parents' feedback, and whether miscues and feedback were related to each other and to preliteracy skills. Letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and expressive vocabulary were assessed in 5-year-old nonreaders who were also audiotaped reading an alphabet book at home with their parent. Results indicate that after controlling for vocabulary, children with higher phonological awareness more often labeled objects with a name beginning with the page's target letter. Parents provided substantial sustaining feedback after miscues, as though using alphabet books as a way of fostering their child's literacy. Findings highlight the need to consider both the child's skill-base and parent–child interactions to understand the role of alphabet books in literacy development.     

The importance of letter knowledge in the relationship between phonological awareness and reading

Previous correlational and experimental research has found a positive association between phonological awareness and reading skills. This paper provides an overview of studies in this area and shows that many studies have neglected to control for extraneous variables such as ability, phonological memory, pre‐existing reading skills and letter knowledge. The paper reports on the results of a longitudinal study that took account of these variables when examining the relationship between phonological awareness and reading for a group of children during their first two years at school. Children showed rhyme awareness before they began to read but were unable to perform a phoneme deletion task until after they had developed word‐reading skills. Concurrent and predictive correlations between phonological awareness scores and later reading were often significant and remained so after adjusting for verbal ability or phonological memory. Controlling for letter knowledge, however, reduced most correlations to nonsignificant levels.     

The immediate and longer‐term effectiveness of a speech‐rhythm‐based reading intervention for beginning readers

Despite empirical evidence of a relationship between sensitivity to speech rhythm and reading, there have been few studies that have examined the impact of rhythmic training on reading attainment, and no intervention study has focused on speech rhythm sensitivity specifically to enhance reading skills. Seventy‐three typically developing 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children were randomly allocated to one of three treatment groups and received a speech‐rhythm‐based intervention, a phonological‐awareness‐based intervention, or a control intervention over 10 weeks. All children completed pre‐test, post‐test and delayed post‐test measures of speech rhythm sensitivity, single‐word reading, phonological awareness and vocabulary. The results show that it is possible to train speech rhythm sensitivity in this age group and that children who undertook the speech rhythm intervention showed a significant improvement in their word reading performance compared to children in the control group. Group differences were maintained 3 months later.     

The interrelationships among preschool predictors of reading acquisition for German children

A sample of 169 German children were tested in general verbal ability, verbal memory span, phonological awareness, lexical access speed and accuracy, and letter knowledge in preschool. These tests were used as independent measures predicting performance on second grade reading comprehension, word discrimination, and word decoding speed. Tests of verbal ability, memory capacity, and phonological awareness were also given over a year later in elementary school. After determining that the influence of verbal ability, memory capacity, and phonological awareness on reading comprehension was comparable when measured in preschool and elementary school, the effects of all preschool measures on the three dependent reading measures were assessed. These analyses revealed differential main effects and interactions for the three dependent measures. However, a significant three-way interaction among lexical access, memory capacity, and phonological awareness was found for all three reading measures. These results indicate that the interaction and subsequent effects of these linguistic skills precedes and influences reading acquisition. This is contrary to the view that these skills interact as a result of reading experience. The implications of these results, as well as comparisons of conducting such studies with German rather than English speaking children are discussed.     

Pilot study evaluating the impact of dialogic reading and shared reading at transition to primary school: early literacy skills and parental attitudes

Previous studies have demonstrated the positive impact of shared reading (SR) and dialogic reading (DR) on young children's language and literacy development. This exploratory study compared the relative impact of parental DR and shared reading interventions on 4‐year‐old children's early literacy skills and parental attitudes to reading prior to and following school entry. Parents were trained using a self‐instruction training DVD. The children's rhyme awareness, word reading, concepts about print and writing vocabulary were assessed before and after 6 weeks over the summer period and again after one term in school. Four illustrative case studies are presented, which reveal the differential impact of the interventions on the families who participated. Findings indicated that DR had a positive impact on children's enjoyment of reading, concepts about print, parent–child reading behaviours and parental attitudes to joint storybook reading. The children who experienced shared‐book reading during the intervention also demonstrated improvements in word reading. There were no changes in rhyme awareness or writing vocabulary for either group. Changes in print concept awareness were not maintained at follow‐up, but improvements in writing vocabulary and word reading scores were noted. The reasons for this are discussed with reference to the formal literacy instruction the children received during their first academic term.     

The unique role of lexical accessibility in predicting kindergarten emergent literacy

The goal of this longitudinal study was to examine how lexical quality predicts the emergence of literacy abilities in 169 Dutch kindergarten children before formal reading instruction has started. At the beginning of the school year, a battery of precursor measures associated with lexical quality was related to the emergence of letter knowledge and word decoding. Confirmatory factor analysis evidenced five domains related to lexical quality, i.e., vocabulary, phonological coding, phonological awareness, lexical retrieval and phonological working memory. Structural equation modeling showed that the development of letter knowledge during the year could be predicted from children’s phonological awareness and lexical retrieval, and the emergence of word decoding from their phonological awareness and letter knowledge. It is concluded that it is primarily the accessibility of phonological representations in the mental lexicon that predicts the emergence of literacy in kindergarten.     

Joint storybook reading and joint writing interventions among low SES preschoolers: differential contributions to early literacy

This study compared two interventions: one focusing on language and storybook reading and the other on alphabetic skills and writing. Seventy-one preschoolers aged 3–5 from a low SES township in central Israel (35 in the reading program and 36 in the writing program) participated in evaluation of the interventions. Twenty-four untreated preschoolers served as a control group. The children were tested twice, at the beginning and at the end of the school year, in: phonological awareness, word writing, letter knowledge, orthographic awareness, listening comprehension, receptive vocabulary, and general knowledge. Both programs involved games and creative activities. The writing program encouraged letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and functional writing activities. The reading program utilized 11 children's books for focusing on language and exploring major concepts raised by these books. Results indicated that children in the two literacy programs progressed significantly more than the control group on phonological awareness and orthographic awareness. However, the joint writing group significantly outperformed both the joint reading group and the control group on phonological awareness, word writing, orthographic awareness, and letter knowledge. We also found that children as young as 3–4 years gained from literacy programs as much as did older children, aged 4–5, on all the measures assessed in our program.     

Do vocabulary,syntactic awareness,and reading comprehension in second language facilitate the development of each other in young children?

This study explored whether children's second language (L2) vocabulary, syntactic awareness, and reading comprehension contributed to the growth of each other. A total of 184 Chinese primary school children (91 girls) aged 8–10 years old in Hong Kong participated in the pre-test of this study. Among them, 88 were in Grade 3 and 96 were in Grade 4. One year later, 178 of these children also participated in the post-test. These children learned English as an L2 at school. They completed a series of English language tasks. The results from a cross-lagged panel model show that vocabulary predicted the growth of syntactic awareness and reading comprehension. Syntactic awareness predicted the growth of vocabulary and reading comprehension. Reading comprehension facilitated the growth of vocabulary, and it also predicted the growth of syntactic awareness in Grade 4 students but not in Grade 3 students. Implications for teaching children an L2 are discussed.     

A longitudinal investigation of the role of quantity and quality of child-directed speech in vocabulary development

Quantity and quality of caregiver input was examined longitudinally in a sample of 50 parent–child dyads to determine which aspects of input contribute most to children’s vocabulary skill across early development. Measures of input gleaned from parent–child interactions at child ages 18, 30, and 42 months were examined in relation to children’s vocabulary skill on a standardized measure 1 year later (e.g., 30, 42, and 54 months). Results show that controlling for socioeconomic status, input quantity, and children’s previous vocabulary skill; using a diverse and sophisticated vocabulary with toddlers; and using decontextualized language (e.g., narrative) with preschoolers explains additional variation in later vocabulary ability. The differential effects of various aspects of the communicative environment at several points in early vocabulary development are discussed.     

Changes in letter sound knowledge are associated with development of phonological awareness in pre‐school children

Letter sound knowledge, which, together with phonological awareness, is highly predictive of pre‐school children's reading acquisition, derives from children's knowledge of their associated letter names and the phonological patterns of those names. In this study of 66 monolingual pre‐school children we examined whether phonological patterns between letter names and their associated sounds might be differentially associated with aspects of phonological awareness. Results suggest that rudimentary levels of phonological awareness may facilitate the learning of letter sound associations. However, more explicit phonological awareness appears to be linked bi‐directionally with letter sound knowledge with diverse name‐sound associations, with letter sound associations that do not follow regular patterns (e.g. ‘juh’ for ‘j’ and ‘huh’ for ‘h’) most closely associated with performance in more complex phoneme awareness tasks.     

The effect of Braille orthography on blind children’s phonological awareness

Little is known about the phonological awareness and literacy skills of children who are blind. Fifteen 7–12 year old blind children were assessed on standardised measures of intelligence, spelling and reading. They performed poorer when reading than their chronological age would predict. Their phonological awareness skills were compared with a sighted group matched for chronological age (CA). The blind children performed poorer than the CA matched group. In a second experiment, the effect of Braille orthography on phonological awareness was investigated by comparing blind and CA matched children’s ability to segment heard words, which are written in Braille with and without contractions. Words with Braille contractions were less well segmented by the blind children. The results suggest that the nature of the orthography learned affects phonological awareness.     

The contribution of early home literacy activities to first grade reading and writing achievements in Arabic

This longitudinal study assessed the literacy development of native Arabic-speaking children from kindergarten to the end of first grade, focusing on the role of home literacy activities (mother–child shared book reading and joint writing). The contribution of these activities in kindergarten to children’s reading and writing at the end of first grade were evaluated, controlling for family SES and children’s early skills (vocabulary and letter naming). Eighty-eight Arabic-speaking children and their mothers participated in the study. Results revealed that family SES, children’s early skills and home literacy activities in kindergarten correlated with children’s achievements at the end of first grade. Joint writing contributed significantly to children’s literacy in first grade and the contribution of shared reading was almost significant. Joint writing was found to contribute to children’s literacy achievements in first grade beyond book reading. The study extends our knowledge on literacy acquisition in Arabic, highlighting the significance of early parent–child literacy activities as a predictor of Arabic-speaking children’s literacy achievements in school.     

The role of morphological awareness in reading achievement among young Chinese-speaking English language learners: a longitudinal study

The present study examined the development of morphological awareness and its contribution to vocabulary and reading comprehension among young Chinese-speaking English language learners (ELLs). We focused on two aspects of morphological awareness: derivational awareness and compound awareness. Participants included 46 kindergarteners (younger cohort) and 34 first graders (older cohort) of Chinese descent in Canada at the beginning of the study. Children were administered a battery of English measures including derivational awareness, compound awareness, phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary, and reading comprehension at two time points spaced 1?year apart. Results demonstrated a steady growth in Chinese-speaking ELL children??s derivational and compound awareness from kindergarten to Grade 2. Importantly, for the first graders, morphological awareness accounted for unique variance in vocabulary concurrently, and unique variance in both vocabulary and reading comprehension a year later. Generally speaking, the variance explained by morphological awareness increased with grade level, and derivational awareness accounted for more variance in vocabulary and reading comprehension than did compound awareness. These results underscore the emerging importance of morphological awareness, especially derivational awareness, in young Chinese-speaking ELL children??s English reading development.     

Literacy skills in Maltese–English bilingual children

This research considers aspects of literacy in Maltese–English bilingual children. The study examined the reading and phonological awareness skills in English and Maltese of children whose home language is Maltese and second language English. A sample of 50 typically developing Maltese pupils aged 8 years 0 months to 10 years 5 months was selected. Since commencing school at the age of 5 years, the children have been learning to read in Maltese and also in English. For the purpose of this study, Maltese reading and reading‐related tests were constructed to parallel the UK and US standardised assessments. The novel tests and the standardised tests were administered to all the children. Results showed that Maltese children read better in their first language (Maltese) than in English, the language of instruction. Findings also showed that phonological awareness measures correlated across first and second languages. The results are discussed in terms of L1 and L2 transfer, whereby the transparency of Maltese orthography and English phonological processing skills facilitate performance on phonological tasks in both Maltese and English.     

Associations between inattention,hyperactivity and pre-reading skills before and after formal reading instruction begins

Concurrent associations between teacher ratings of inattention, hyperactivity and pre-reading skills were examined in 64 pre-schoolers who had not commenced formal reading instruction and 136 school entrants who were in the first weeks of reading instruction. Both samples of children completed measures of pre-reading skills, namely phonological awareness, phonological memory, rapid naming, and letter name knowledge, as well as a measure of verbal ability. School entrants also completed measures of letter sound knowledge and beginning word identification skills. Teachers completed rating scales of inattention and hyperactivity. In the preschool sample, teacher-rated inattention and hyperactivity were not correlated with measures of children’s phonological processing but were correlated with letter name knowledge. In comparison, inattention, but not hyperactivity, was independently related to all measures of school entrants’ phonological processing and alphabet knowledge and their knowledge of high frequency words. Structural equation modelling on the school entrant sample revealed that the relationship between inattention and beginning word identification was mediated by pre-reading skills, suggesting that attention problems may compromise reading development during the earliest stages of learning to read through their impact on pre-reading skills. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the consideration of inattention in the design of effective and engaging early childhood learning environments.     

The Relationship Between Vocabulary and Word Reading Among Head Start Spanish–English Bilingual Children

In this study, we investigated the concurrent and longitudinal relationships between vocabulary and word reading across Spanish and English. One hundred and seventeen 4- to 5-year-old Spanish–English bilingual children attending Head Start programs in the United States were tested for their Spanish and English word reading twice, 5 months apart. We also tested the children’s Spanish and English vocabulary and phonological awareness at Time 1. We used multiple regression models to examine the predictive value of vocabulary to word reading cross-linguistically and longitudinally. Results showed that within (Spanish or English) language and concurrent predictions were stronger than cross-language and longitudinal predictions; however, Spanish vocabulary was a significant and unique predictor of English word reading longitudinally. Spanish phonological awareness also played an important role in the relationship between vocabulary and word reading. Our results suggest that helping Spanish-speaking children build their Spanish vocabulary can also improve their English word reading ability.     

Phonological working memory: A critical building block for reading development and vocabulary acquisition?

In this article we review findings from a recent longitudinal study of the contribution of phonological working memory to vocabulary acquisition and reading development. A total of 80 children were tested initially at school entry at the age of four years, and were tested in three further waves at ages 5, 6, and 8 years. The results indicate that phonological memory skills constrain vocabulary growth during the first year or so in school but that subsequently, vocabulary knowledge is a pacemaker in the development relationship with memory. Phonological memory skill in prereading children was found to be significantly linked with scores on a reading test at age 8 which encourages the use of a phonological recoding strategy. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings, and important areas for future research, are discussed.     

The relation between phonological memory skills and reading ability in greek-speaking children: Can training of phonological memory contribute to reading development?

This study was designed to examine whether there is a relationship between phonological memory and reading ability in Greek-speaking children aged between 6 and 9 years. An additional aim of the study was to investigate whether training of phonological memory during preschool years enhances reading achievement during early school years. In Experiment I, the phonological memory ability of 136 first graders, 134 second graders and 132 from each of the third and fourth grades was assessed with a nonword repetition test. A reading test was also used to evaluate the reading skills of the above subjects. The results revealed strong links between reading performance and nonword repetition scores. 120 kindergarten children randomly assigned to a control and an experimental group participated in Experiment 2. Training that involved practice in the repetition of nonwords was used as a means of promoting the phonological memory of the children in the experimental group over the course of one year in school. Subjects’ reading ability was tested during the last month of their first year in the primary school. The findings showed that the performance of the trained subjects in the reading test was superior to that of the control subjects. Such evidence underlines the importance of teaching children of preschool years phonological strategies in order to boost their reading skills during early school years.