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Predictors of reading and comprehension abilities in bilingual and monolingual children: a longitudinal study on a transparent language

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Abstract

Many studies have shown that learning to read in a second language (L2) is similar, in many ways, to learning to read in a first language (L1). Nevertheless, reading development also relies upon oral language proficiency and is greatly influenced by orthographic consistency. This longitudinal study aimed to analyze the role of linguistic predictors (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, pseudoword repetition, morphosyntactic comprehension, lexical knowledge and rapid naming) in reading outcomes (fluency, accuracy and comprehension) in a group of bilingual children (n = 30) reading Italian as an L2, compared to a group of monolingual children (n = 56). We ran a multi-group structural equation model. Our findings showed that rapid automatized naming was a significant predictor of reading speed in both groups. However, the study revealed different patterns of predictors for reading accuracy, predictors for monolinguals being LK, phonological awareness and lexical knowledge, while pseudoword repetition was a predictor for bilinguals. Morphosyntactic comprehension was the most significant predictor of comprehension skills in bilingual children. Implications for clinical and educational settings are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Considering that word and text reading accuracy showed a skewed distribution (ranging outside the limits of ±2; Trochim & Donnelly, 2006), these variables were transformed and the multigroup SEM was also run with this version of the accuracy variables. The resulted model had acceptable fit indices (RMSEA = .083, 90% CI .000–.131; CFI = .956; TLI = .931; SRMR = .072). Furthermore, results for CFAs and regression paths were the same, except for predictors of reading accuracy for monolingual children: in this case, the predictors that resulted significant (p < .05) in the original model, namely letter knowledge, syllable blending and vocabulary, tended toward significance (p = .053 for letter knowledge, p = .060 for syllable blending and p = .068 for vocabulary) in the model with the transformed variables.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Marinella Illuminati and Sandra Bozzi for their precious help in collecting part of the data presented in this paper. We also wish to thank the school’s director and the teachers, who allowed us to carry out this research. Finally, we are grateful to the children and their parents who accepted to participate in this research.

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Bellocchi, S., Tobia, V. & Bonifacci, P. Predictors of reading and comprehension abilities in bilingual and monolingual children: a longitudinal study on a transparent language. Read Writ 30, 1311–1334 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9725-5

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