Orthographic context sensitivity in vowel decoding by Portuguese monolingual and Portuguese–English bilingual children

Abstract

This study examines the pronunciation of the first vowel in decoding disyllabic pseudowords derived from Portuguese words. Participants were 96 Portuguese monolinguals and 52 Portuguese-English bilinguals of equivalent Portuguese reading levels. The results indicate that sensitivity to vowel context emerges early, both in monolinguals and in bilinguals. However, bilinguals, unlike monolinguals, appear to use this knowledge consistently from the first grade. Moreover, the effect of context was stronger in bilinguals than in monolinguals. Apparently, bilinguals benefited from an earlier acquisition of reading principles regarding the use of orthographic context derived from their more frequent use of large patterns to read vowels. Because the Portuguese orthography is considered to be of intermediate consistency, it demands the development of decoding mechanisms that entail units larger than graphemes. English orthography, being more inconsistent, confers bilinguals with an asset to deal with complex structures. Additionally, the data suggest that those patterns appear to be not at the level of the syllable.

Young Bilingual Children’s Spelling Strategies: A Comparative Study of 6- to 7-Year-Old Bilinguals and Monolinguals

“…Portuguese on the other hand is regarded of intermediate consistency; it has a simpler syllabic structure than English, however the relationship between phonemes and graphemes is also not simple and direct (Defior, Martos & Cary, 2002;Vale, 2011). As in English, the Portuguese orthographic system depends on different factors: phonological, syntactic and lexical.…”

What we have learned from ‘learning to read in more than one language’

“…Although there is a focus on children learning to read English, whether this is a first, second or third language, there is a wide diversity in the sociolinguistic experiences of these samples. We have studies of Chinese children learning to read English, both as a second language in China (Li, Kirby & Georgiou, 2011) and as a primary language of instruction in Canada (Pasquarella, Chen, Lam, Luo & Ramirez, 2011), there are also studies of Portuguese children learning to read English in Portugal (Vale, 2011), French children in a late English programme in France (Commissaire, Duncan & Casalis, 2011), Spanish–English preschool children in the United States (Scarpino, Lawrence, Davison & Hammer, 2011), but also English‐dominant children learning to read French in immersion programmes in Canada (Haigh, Erdos & Genesee, 2011). Further, we have an intriguing study of triliterates, children born to Russian immigrants in Israel, who were learning both Hebrew (from Grade 1) and English (from Grade 3) at school (Kahn‐Horwitz, Schwartz & Share, 2011).…”

“…Alternatively, researchers contrast matched groups of monolinguals and bilinguals on a target skill, with differences attributed to bilinguals' exposure to the additional language (and/or writing system; as in e.g. Vale, 2011 with monolinguals and Kahn‐Horwitz et al, 2011 with bilinguals). Commissaire and colleagues' research introduces another possibility: investigating transfer at the level of the skill of interest.…”

“…Hakuta & Cancino, 1977). In her study of Portuguese children learning to read English, Vale (2011) found that exposure to the more complex orthography of English modified the children's reading of vowels in their first language (see also Commissaire et al, 2011). In a different line of research, Scarpino et al (2011) pointed to a relationship between English vocabulary and Spanish phonological awareness, once Spanish vocabulary is controlled.…”

“…Diversity is also apparent in the reading-related skills and outcomes examined in the studies reported here. Reading-related skills include RAN (and its components; Li et al, 2011), orthographic processing or sensitivity (Commissaire et al, 2011;Kahn-Horwitz et al, 2011;Vale, 2011), morphological awareness (Pasquarella et al, 2011) andvocabulary (Melby-Lervåg &Lervåg, 2011;Scarpino et al, 2011), phonological awareness (Melby-Lervåg & Lervåg, 2011;Scarpino et al, 2011) and its components (Haigh et al, 2011). In terms of literacy outcomes, different researchers have looked at the impact of learning to read in more than one language on spelling (Kahn-Horwitz et al, 2011), decoding (Kahn-Horwitz et al, 2011Melby-Lervåg & Lervåg, 2011;Vale, 2011), word reading (Haigh et al, 2011;Melby-Lervåg & Lervåg, 2011;Pasquarella et al, 2011) and reading comprehension (Li et al, 2011).…”