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The impact of language on the relationships between phonological awareness and word reading in different orthographies: A test of the psycholinguistic grain size theory in bilinguals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2015

ALEXANDRA GOTTARDO ,
ADRIAN PASQUARELLA ,
XI CHEN  and
GLORIA RAMIREZ
ALEXANDRA GOTTARDO*
Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University
ADRIAN PASQUARELLA
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
XI CHEN
Affiliation:
OISE at University of Toronto
GLORIA RAMIREZ
Affiliation:
Thompson Rivers University
*
ADDRESS FOR CORREPONDENCE Alexandra Gottardo, Psychology Department, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The relationships among first language (L1) and second language (L2) phonological awareness and reading skills were examined in English L2 learners with a variety of L1s, specifically Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese (maximum N = 252). Longitudinal and concurrent relations between word reading and subcomponents of phonological awareness (i.e., syllable, onset-rime, phoneme, and, where applicable, tone awareness) were examined in kindergarten and first and second grades. The relationships between reading and specific subcomponents of phonological awareness were associated with the orthography being read, English or the L1. Phonological awareness subcomponents related to English reading were generally similar for the three English L2 groups, despite differences in the orthographies of learners’ native language. The findings support the psycholinguistic grain size theory with regard to links between phonological sensitivity and the sound–symbol correspondences used to read the specific languages.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 37 , Issue 5 , September 2016 , pp. 1083 - 1115
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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