TY - JOUR
T1 - Beginning to read across languages varying in orthographic consistency
T2 - comparing the effects of non-cognitive and cognitive predictors
AU - Manolitsis, George
AU - Georgiou, George
AU - Stephenson, Kathy
AU - Parrila, Rauno
PY - 2009/12
Y1 - 2009/12
N2 - We examined whether the effect that different non-cognitive and cognitive factors have on reading acquisition varies as a function of orthographic consistency. Canadian (n = 77) and Greek (n = 95) children attending kindergarten were examined on general cognitive ability, phonological sensitivity, and letter knowledge. The parents of the children responded to a questionnaire on home literacy activities and the teachers reported on children's task-focused behaviour. In Grades 1 and 2 the children's word decoding and reading fluency were assessed. Results indicated that direct teaching of letter names and sounds at home was associated with better letter knowledge in both languages. Task-focused behaviour and letter knowledge in kindergarten predicted significantly nonword decoding in Grade 1, but their effect was stronger in English than in Greek. This pattern was not replicated for reading fluency in Grade 2.
AB - We examined whether the effect that different non-cognitive and cognitive factors have on reading acquisition varies as a function of orthographic consistency. Canadian (n = 77) and Greek (n = 95) children attending kindergarten were examined on general cognitive ability, phonological sensitivity, and letter knowledge. The parents of the children responded to a questionnaire on home literacy activities and the teachers reported on children's task-focused behaviour. In Grades 1 and 2 the children's word decoding and reading fluency were assessed. Results indicated that direct teaching of letter names and sounds at home was associated with better letter knowledge in both languages. Task-focused behaviour and letter knowledge in kindergarten predicted significantly nonword decoding in Grade 1, but their effect was stronger in English than in Greek. This pattern was not replicated for reading fluency in Grade 2.
KW - home literacy environment
KW - task-focused behaviour
KW - emergent literacy
KW - reading development
KW - cross-linguistic comparison
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=70349337884&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2008.07.003
DO - 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2008.07.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:70349337884
VL - 19
SP - 466
EP - 480
JO - Learning and Instruction
JF - Learning and Instruction
SN - 0959-4752
IS - 6
ER -