Szczerbinski, Marcin; (2001) Learning to read and spell single words: A case study of a Slavic language. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

We now have a good knowledge of the initial period of literacy acquisition in English, but the development of literacy in other languages, and the implication of this for our understanding of cognitive processing of written language, is less well explored. In this study, Polish 1st - 3rd grade children (7;6-9;6 years old) were tested on reading and spelling of words, with controls for factors which have been shown to affect performance in other languages (lexicality, frequency, orthographic complexity). Moreover, each participant was individually tested on a range of linguistic skills understood to be essential components of literacy acquisition. These included: phonological awareness (detection, analysis, blending, deletion and replacement of sound segments in words) serial naming (of pictures, digits, letters) and morphological skills (using prefixes and suffixes). Some higher-level visual skills, and general intellectual ability (vocabulary knowledge, reasoning) were also assessed. In comparison with the existing data, Polish children appeared to acquire basic reading and spelling skills somewhat faster than their English counterparts, but slower than the consistent orthography learners (e.g. German). Some complex, conditional orthographic rules that occur in Polish were not fully mastered even in grade 3. This fits the description of Polish orthography as only moderately consistent overall. Success in learning to read and spell was independently predicted by two factors: phonological awareness and naming ability, with other skills (morphological and visual) playing a minor or negligible role. This outcome is broadly consistent with that observed in other languages in which it has been studied, suggesting that the essential mechanisms of learning written language may be the same across orthographies. Additionally, the performance of the few children who were falling behind in their reading was systematically analysed. Distinct sub-groups of inaccurate and slow readers could be identified. Both types of difficulties could usually be attributed to the co-occurrence of poor phonological awareness and slow naming.

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