Biliteracy acquisition in Kannada and English: A developmental study

This study investigated the contribution of decoding and language comprehension sub-skills to Kannada and English biliteracy development over three years in multilingual students in urban low-income communities in one large city in India. Syllabic awareness, phonemic awareness and decoding skills were measured in Grades 3–5 (Time 1), and participants were followed to Grades 6–8 (Time 2), when their oral language comprehension and reading comprehension skills were tested. Hierarchical regression results revealed that: (1) both syllabic and phonemic awareness predicted Kannada decoding scores; however, only phonemic awareness predicted English decoding scores; (2) decoding ability from Time 1 and language comprehension skills from Time 2 made unique contributions to reading comprehension skills at Time 2 in both languages; (3) there were significant cross-linguistic relationships between corresponding reading sub-skills at both times; and (4) there was an independent contribution of Kannada decoding to English decoding at Time 1; however, the contribution of Kannada reading comprehension to English reading comprehension at Time 2 was not direct. The theoretical and pedagogical implications of these findings for alphasyllabic-alphabetic biliteracy development are discussed.

[1]  Margaret J. Snowling,et al.  Reading in an Alphasyllabary: Implications for a Language Universal Theory of Learning to Read , 2012 .

[2]  Stephen R. Burgess,et al.  Development of emergent literacy and early reading skills in preschool children: evidence from a latent-variable longitudinal study. , 2000, Developmental psychology.

[3]  K. Koda.  Insights into Second Language Reading: References , 2005 .

[4]  Min Wang,et al.  The contributions of phonology, orthography, and morphology in Chinese–English biliteracy acquisition , 2009, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[5]  Brian Byrne,et al.  Longitudinal Data on the Relations of Word-Reading Strategies to Comprehension, Reading Time, and Phonemic Awareness. , 1992 .

[6]  Js Chall,et al.  Stages of reading development (2nd ed. , 1996 .

[7]  C. Perfetti,et al.  Chinese–English biliteracy acquisition: cross-language and writing system transfer , 2005, Cognition.

[8]  Catherine McBride-Chang,et al.  Developmental trajectories of reading development and impairment from ages 3 to 8 years in Chinese children. , 2011, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[9]  E. Annamalai,et al.  Managing Multilingualism in India: Political and Linguistic Manifestations , 2001 .

[10]  Bruce F. Pennington,et al.  The Relationship Between Phoneme Awareness and Rapid Serial Naming Skills and Literacy Acquisition: The Role of Developmental Period and Reading Ability , 2004 .

[11]  G. Humphreys,et al.  The Effect of Urdu Vocabulary Size on the Acquisition of Single Word Reading in English , 2002 .

[12]  Keiko Koda,et al.  Orthographic constraints on phonological awareness in biliteracy development , 2013 .

[13]  Charles A. Perfetti,et al.  The Universal Grammar of Reading , 2003 .

[14]  Jan H. Hulstijn,et al.  Development of adolescent reading comprehension in Language 1 and Language 2; a longitudinal analysis of constituent components , 2007 .

[15]  Heather Winskel,et al.  Reading and spelling acquisition in Thai children , 2010 .

[16]  Olga D. Lambert.  Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth , 2008 .

[17]  K. Koda,et al.  Alphabetic and nonalphabetic L1 effects in English word identification: a comparison of Korean and Chinese English L2 learners , 2003, Cognition.

[18]  Patricia L. Carrell,et al.  Second Language Reading: Reading Ability or Language Proficiency?. , 1991 .

[19]  Heejin Kim,et al.  The Simple View of Reading , 2012 .

[20]  Y. Petscher,et al.  Relations of emergent literacy skill development with conventional literacy skill development in Korean , 2011 .

[21]  Salim Abu-Rabia,et al.  Reading skills in three orthographies: The case of trilingual Arabic–Hebrew–English-speaking Arab children , 2003 .

[22]  Keiko Koda,et al.  Learning to Read Across Languages : Cross-Linguistic Relationships in First- and Second-Language Literacy Development , 2008 .

[23]  K. Koda.  Impacts of prior literacy experience on second language learning to read , 2008 .

[24]  D. P. Hurford,et al.  Early Identification of Children At Risk for Reading Disabilities , 1994, Journal of learning disabilities.

[25]  Robert Neuwirth,et al.  Shadow cities : a billion squatters, a new urban world , 2005 .

[26]  D. Schallert,et al.  The Relative Contribution of L2 Language Proficiency and L1 Reading Ability to L2 Reading Performance: A Test of the Threshold Hypothesis in an EFL Context , 1997 .

[27]  D. Vasanta.  Processing phonological information in a semi-syllabic script: Developmental data from Telugu , 2004 .

[28]  Keiko Koda,et al.  The role of phonemic awareness in second language reading , 1998 .

[29]  Darielle Greenberg.  Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests–Revised , 2014 .

[30]  Stephen R. Burgess,et al.  Changing relations between phonological processing abilities and word-level reading as children develop from beginning to skilled readers: a 5-year longitudinal study. , 1997, Developmental psychology.

[31]  Ashum Gupta,et al.  Exploring Word Recognition in a Semi-Alphabetic Script: The Case of Devanagari , 2002, Brain and Language.

[32]  Julie S. Lynch,et al.  Predicting Reading Comprehension in Early Elementary School: The Independent Contributions of Oral Language and Decoding Skills , 2009 .

[33]  Viniti Vaish,et al.  Biliteracy and Globalization: English Language Education in India , 2008 .

[34]  Gail F. Taillefer.  L2 Reading Ability: Further Insight into the Short-circuit Hypothesis , 1996 .

[35]  R. Treiman,et al.  Learning to spell in an alphasyllabary: The case of Kannada , 2010 .

[36]  Catherine McBride-Chang,et al.  Children's Literacy Development , 2004 .

[37]  Marinus Voeten,et al.  Development of decoding, reading comprehension, vocabulary and spelling during the elementary school years , 2001 .

[38]  R. Joshi,et al.  Cognitive Component of Componential Model of Reading Applied to Different Orthographies , 2012, Journal of learning disabilities.

[39]  Joanne F. Carlisle,et al.  Relationship of metalinguistic capabilities and reading achievement for children who are becoming bilingual , 1999, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[40]  Ludo Verhoeven,et al.  Transfer in Bilingual Development: The Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis Revisited , 1994 .

[41]  M. Chiu,et al.  Morphological Awareness, Phonological Awareness, and Literacy Development in Korean and English: A 2-Year Longitudinal Study , 2011 .

[42]  G. Whitehurst,et al.  Oral language and code-related precursors to reading: evidence from a longitudinal structural model. , 2002, Developmental psychology.

[43]  P. Padakannaya,et al.  Dyslexia and hyperlexia in bilinguals. , 2010, Dyslexia.

[44]  Richard C. Anderson,et al.  Morphological Awareness and Learning to Read: A Cross-Language Perspective , 2006 .

[45]  Thomas G. Devine.  Listening and Reading. , 1976 .

[46]  K. Cain,et al.  The Simple View of Reading: Is It Valid for Different Types of Alphabetic Orthographies? , 2011 .

[47]  Bruce A. Murray,et al.  Defining phonological awareness and its relationship to early reading. , 1994 .

[48]  Keiko Koda,et al.  Cross-linguistic variations in L2 morphological awareness , 2000, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[49]  T. Høien,et al.  The Reading Efficiency Model , 2012, Journal of learning disabilities.

[50]  K. Koda,et al.  Cross-linguistic transfer in second language reading , 2008, Language Teaching.

[51]  R. Johnston,et al.  Effect of synthetic phonics instruction on literacy skills in an ESL setting , 2013 .

[52]  Y. Kim.  Crosslinguistic influence on phonological awareness for Korean–English bilingual children , 2009 .

[53]  Claire M. Fletcher-Flinn,et al.  The acquisition of phoneme awareness in children learning the hiragana syllabary , 2011 .

[54]  Mm. Liabre.  Standard Progressive Matrices , 1984 .

[55]  Barbara Hancin-Bhatt,et al.  Lexical transfer and second language morphological development , 1994, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[56]  A. Seigneuric,et al.  Reading comprehension in French 1st and 2nd grade children: Contribution of decoding and language comprehension , 2006 .

[57]  L. Siegel,et al.  Orthographic and cognitive factors in the concurrent development of basic reading skills in two languages , 2000 .

[58]  E. Geva,et al.  Orthographic and Cognitive Factors in the Concurrent Development of Basic ReadingSkills in English and Persian , 1999 .

[59]  R. Woodcock.  Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised , 1987 .

[60]  Sonali Nag,et al.  Early reading in Kannada: The pace of acquisition of orthographic knowledge and phonemic awareness , 2007 .

[61]  Catherine McBride-Chang,et al.  Correlates of Korean Hangul Acquisition Among Kindergartners and Second Graders , 2005 .

[62]  Richard Sproat,et al.  Impact of spatial ordering of graphemes in alphasyllabic scripts on phonemic awareness in Indic languages , 2010 .

[63]  Jeesun Kim,et al.  Characteristics of poor readers of Korean hangul: Auditory, visual and phonological processing , 2004 .

[64]  Lesly Wade-Woolley,et al.  Factors Related to English Reading Performance in Children with Chinese as a First Language: More Evidence of Cross-Language Transfer of Phonological Processing. , 2001 .

[65]  David N. Rapp,et al.  Simple but complex: components of the simple view of reading across grade levels , 2009 .

[66]  L. Siegel,et al.  Reading, syntactic, and working memory skills of bilingual Portuguese-English Canadian children , 1995 .

[67]  Philip B. Gough,et al.  Decoding, Reading, and Reading Disability , 1986 .

[68]  S. Tiwari.  A preliminary investigation of akshara knowledge in the Malayalam alphasyllabary: extension of Nag’s (2007) study , 2011 .

[69]  C. Hulme,et al.  Phonemes, rimes, vocabulary, and grammatical skills as foundations of early reading development: evidence from a longitudinal study. , 2004, Developmental psychology.

[70]  Michael L. Kamil,et al.  Interpreting Relationships between L1 and L2 Reading: Consolidating the Linguistic Threshold and the Linguistic Interdependence Hypotheses , 1995 .

[71]  Ludo Verhoeven,et al.  Language proficiency and reading ability in first- and second-language learners , 2003 .

[72]  Sonali Nag,et al.  Cognitive profiles of poor readers of Kannada , 2011 .

[73]  P. Snellings,et al.  Linguistic knowledge, processing speed and metacognitive knowledge in first and second language reading comprehension; a componential analysis. , 2004 .

[74]  Min Wang,et al.  Korean-English biliteracy acquisition: Cross-language phonological and orthographic transfer , 2006 .