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Psychological Science Vol. 23 No. 6 2012

Common Patterns of Prediction of Literacy Development in Different Alphabetic Orthographies

Markéta Caravolas1; Arne Lervåg2; Petroula Mousikou1; Corina Efrim3; Miroslav Litavský4; Eduardo Onochie-Quintanilla5; Naymé Salas1; Miroslava Schöffelová6; Sylvia Defior5; Marína Mikulajová6; Gabriela Seidlová-Málková4; Charles Hulme7

1 School of Psychology, Bangor University · 2 Department of Educational Research, University of Oslo · 3 Department of Psychology, Université Blaise Pascal · 4 Department of Educational Psychology, Charles University · 5 Department of Educational Psychology, University of Granada · 6 Department of Educational Psychology, Comenius University in Bratislava · 7 Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London

open access

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and verbal memory span are reliable correlates of learning to read in English. However, the extent to which these different predictors have the same relative importance in different languages remains uncertain. In this article, we present the results from a 10-month longitudinal study that began just before or soon after the start of formal literacy instruction in four languages (English, Spanish, Slovak, and Czech). Longitudinal path analyses showed that phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and RAN (but not verbal memory span) measured at the onset of literacy instruction were reliable predictors, with similar relative importance, of later reading and spelling skills across the four languages. These data support the suggestion that in all alphabetic orthographies, phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and RAN may tap cognitive processes that are important for learning to read.

DOI
10.1177/0956797611434536
Volume
23
Issue
6
Pages
678-686
Language
en
Sources
crossref openalex

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