title: Phonological development in relation to native language and literacy: variations on a theme in six alphabetic orthographies.
abstract: Phonological development was assessed in six alphabetic orthographies (English, French, Greek, Icelandic, Portuguese and Spanish) at the beginning and end of the first year of reading instruction. The aim was to explore contrasting theoretical views regarding: the question of the availability of phonology at the outset of learning to read (Study 1); the influence of orthographic depth on the pace of phonological development during the transition to literacy (Study 2); and the impact of literacy instruction (Study 3). Results from 242 children did not reveal a consistent sequence of development as performance varied according to task demands and language. Phonics instruction appeared more influential than orthographic depth in the emergence of an early meta-phonological capacity to manipulate phonemes, and preliminary indications were that cross-linguistic variation was associated with speech rhythm more than factors such as syllable complexity. The implications of the outcome for current models of phonological development are discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, United Kingdom. l.g.duncan@dundee.ac.uk
authors.forename: Lynne G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.forename: São Luís
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Defior
authors.forename: Philip H K
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Seymour
authors.forename: Sheila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baillie
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leybaert
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mousty
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Genard
authors.forename: Menelaos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sarris
authors.forename: Costas D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Porpodas
authors.forename: Rannveig
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lund
authors.forename: Baldur
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sigurðsson
authors.forename: Anna S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Thornráinsdóttir
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sucena
authors.forename: Francisca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Serrano
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D013663:Teaching; D014825:Vocabulary