No abstract

This study examined whether helping poor readers improve their reading and writing language skills in English as a third language/foreign language (L3/FL) would also bring about an improvement in those same skills in Arabic (L1) and Hebrew (L2). Transferring linguistic skills from L3/FL to both L1 and L2 is termed "Cognitive Retroactive Transfer" (CRT). A battery of tests, administered to the experiment and control groups, assessed orthographic knowledge, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, syntactic awareness, reading accuracy and reading comprehension in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. The treatment group was provided with an intervention program in English, but not in Arabic or Hebrew, both before and after the experiment. Findings indicated a significant improvement in the treatment group's achievements in all linguistic and meta-linguistic skills in all study languages after the intervention, except for orthographic knowledge in Arabic and Hebrew. The results are discussed in light of the international data.

The purpose of this article is to review published studies regarding acquisition of English as a second or foreign language by students of different linguistic backgrounds, in light of the English language's opaque alphabetic orthography. This review focuses on the contribution of first language cognitive skills (orthographic knowledge, phonological awareness, and morphological awareness) in native speakers of languages with alphabetic and logographic orthographies, to English second-language reading skills (word reading and reading comprehension), to better understand the contribution of cognitive reading skills in alphabetic and logographic languages to the acquisition of English reading skills as a second language. The author examines findings in the context of second-language learning theories, and two contradictory hypotheses in particularthe linguistic interdependence hypothesis and the script-dependent hypothesis. The author finds that no consensus can be indicated as to the contribution of most native-language skills in alphabetic vs. logographic languages to the acquisition of second-language or foreign-language English reading, or even whether or not they are language-specific (script-dependent). The exception is phonological awareness in alphabetical orthographies (but not logographic orthographies) which received a consensus among researchers supporting its transfer from the native language to English as a second or foreign language.

This study examines the relation between linguistic skills, personality types, and language anxiety amongst eighty Israeli Grade 11 students whose mother tongue is Hebrew and who are learning English as a second language. The participants were administered various tests measuring their basic linguistic skills in Hebrew as their first language (L1), including phonological and morphological awareness, working memory, rapid naming-and a series of language tests: vocabulary, word and text reading, pseudo-word reading, and spelling. They were also administered tests in English as a foreign language (EFL): vocabulary, word recognition, letter identification, text reading, and pseudo-word reading. All the participants completed an anxiety questionnaire with respect to both language sets, together with a personality questionnaire based on the Big Five model. The findings demonstrated a significant positive correlation between all the L1 and EFL linguistic skills. A significant negative correlation was obtained between the linguistic skills in both languages and anxiety towards English and Hebrew. The participants also exhibited similar levels of anxiety towards both languages. The results further identified the contribution made by personality types-neuroticism in particular-to the prediction of language anxiety and EFL success. All the findings are discussed in light of the literature, suggestions being made for future research possibilities.

This study examines the correlation between Jewish/Israeli identity, pronunciation levels, the critical learning age period, and accent. The sample pool consisted of fifty Russian immigrant students and ten native-born Israeli citizens who were administered a 3-part questionnaire composed of questions relating to linguistic ability, heaviness of accent, and sense of Israeli identity. Accent was assessed by oral tests in which the participants were asked to perform various verbal tasks”such as repeating pseudo-words, pronouncing words with phonetic omissions, vocabulary tests, and listening-comprehension tests. Israeli identity was evaluated by a 23-item identity questionnaire. The findings indicate that a heavy accent is linked to a weaker sense of Israeli identity, the critical-age period also playing a central function in influencing vocabulary retention and learning skills. These parameters corresponded to the age of arrival in the country. No correlation was obtained between heaviness of accent and linguistic learning skills.