Abstract
This study examined whether factors affecting first language reading acquisition also affect English Foreign Language (EFL) reading acquisition. Hebrew (L1) and EFL reading related measures were administrated to 145 fourth graders from the north of Israel who were beginning their first year of English instruction. Results from a Linear Structural Equational Analysis (LISREL) showed that the Hebrew independent variable consisting of morphological and phonological awareness, orthographic ability, and word reading (accuracy and speed) predicted EFL knowledge of letter sounds and names, word attack and reading comprehension. In addition to the Hebrew independent variable, English word recognition (accuracy and speed) predicted English reading comprehension. These results support the Linguistic Coding Differences Hypothesis (LCDH), which argues for core linguistic abilities that influence first and subsequent language reading acquisition.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Abbreviations
- EFL:
-
English as a Foreign Language
- L1:
-
first language
- LCDH:
-
Linguistic Coding Differences Hypothesis
- L2:
-
second language
References
M. Adams (1990) Beginning to read MIT Press Cambridge, MA
N.A. Badian (1995) ArticleTitlePredicting reading ability over the long term: The changing roles of letter naming, phonological awareness and orthographic processing Annals of Dyslexia 45 79–96
R. Balgur (1977) Mivxan Kriya Diagnosti Letalmidey Kitot bet – yud Shockan Tel Aviv Israel
I. Ben-Dror S. Bentin R. Frost (1995) ArticleTitleSemantic, phonologic and morphologic skills in reading disabled and normal children: Evidence from perception and production of spoken Hebrew Reading Research Quarterly 30 876–893
I. Ben-Dror R. Frost S. Bentin (1995) ArticleTitleOrthographic representation and phonemic segmentation in skilled readers: A cross-language comparison Psychological Science 6 176–181
S. Bentin R. Frost (1995) Morphological factors in visual word identification in Hebrew L.B. Feldman (Eds) Morphological aspects of language processing Erlbaum Associates Hillsdale, NJ 271–292
S. Bentin H. Leshem (1993) ArticleTitleOn the interaction between phonological awareness and reading acquisition: It’s a two-way street Annals of Dyslexia 43 125–148
Berent, I., & Shimron, J. (1997). The representation of Hebrew words: Evidence from the Obligatory Contour Principle. Cognition, 1–32.
R.A. Berman (2003) Children’s lexical innovations J. Shimron (Eds) Language processing and acquisition in languages of Semitic, root-based, morphology John Benjamins Amsterdam Holland 243–292
E. Bialystok (2001a) Literacy: The extension of languages through other means R.L. Cooper E. Shohamy J. Walters (Eds) New Perspectives on Educational Linguistics John Benjamins Amsterdam Holland 19–33
B. J. Biddle M. M. Marlin (1987) ArticleTitleCausality, confirmation, credulity, and structural equation modeling Child Development 58 4–17
P. G. Bowers M. Wolf (1993) ArticleTitleTheoretical links among naming speed, precise timing mechanisms and orthographic skill in dyslexia Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 5 69–85 Occurrence Handle10.1007/BF01026919
J. E. Brisbois (1995) ArticleTitleConnections between first and second language reading Journal of Reading Behavior 27 565–584
J. F. Carlisle (2000) ArticleTitleAwareness of the structure and meaning of morphologically complex words: Impact on reading Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 12 169–190 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1008131926604
J. F. Carlisle M. Beeman L. Hull Davis G. Sphraim (1999) ArticleTitleRelationship of metalinguistic capabilities and reading achievement for children who are becoming bilingual Applied Psycholinguistics 20 459–478 Occurrence Handle10.1017/S0142716499004014
J. F. Carlisle D. M. Nomanbhoy (1993) ArticleTitlePhonological and morphological awareness in first graders Applied Psycholinguistics 14 177–195
J. B. Carroll (2000) ArticleTitleThe analysis of reading instruction: Perspectives from psychology and linguistics Scientific Studies of Reading 4 3–17 Occurrence Handle10.1207/S1532799XSSR0401_2
H. W. Catts M. E. Fey X. Zhang J. B. Tombling (1999) ArticleTitleLanguage basis of reading and reading disabilities: Evidence from a longitudinal investigation Scientific Studies of Reading 3 331–361
L. Comeau P. Cormier E. Grandmaison D. Lacroix (1999) ArticleTitleA longitudinal study of phonological processing skills in children learning to read in a second language Journal of Educational Psychology 91 29–43 Occurrence Handle10.1037/0022-0663.91.1.29
J. Cummins (1984) Bilingualism and special education: Issues in assessment and pedagogy Pro-Ed. Austin Texas
Cutting, L. E., Carlisle, J. F., & Denckla, M. B. (1998). A model of the relationships among rapid automatized naming (RAN) and other predictors of word reading. Paper presented to the fifth annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, San Diego, CA.
M. Dufva M. J. M. Voeten (1999) ArticleTitleNative language literacy and phonological memory as prerequisites for learning English as a foreign language Applied Psycholinguistics 20 329–348 Occurrence Handle10.1017/S014271649900301X
A. Y. Durgunoglu (1997) Bilingual reading: Its components, development, and other issues A. M. B. Groot ParticleDe J. F. Kroll (Eds) Tutorials in bilingualism: Psycholinguistics Erlbaum Hillsdale, NJ 255–276
L. C. Ehri (1992) Reconceptualizing the development of sight word reading and its relationship to recoding P. B. Gough L. C. Ehri R. Treiman (Eds) Reading acquisition Erlbaum Hillsdale, NJ 107–143
L. C. Ehri C. Chun (1996) How alphabetic/phonemic knowledge facilitates text processing in emergent readers J. Shimron (Eds) Literacy and education: Essays in memory of Dina Feitelson Hampton Cresskill, NJ 69–93
L. B. Feldman D. Andjelkovic (1992) Morphological analysis in word recognition R. Frost L. Katz (Eds) Orthography, phonology, morphology, and meaning Elsevier Amsterdam Holland 343–360
R. Frost S. Bentin (1992) Reading consonants and guessing vowels: Visual word recognition in Hebrew orthography R. Frost L. Katz (Eds) Orthography, phonology, morphology, and meaning Elsevier Amsterdam 27–44
L. Ganschow R. L. Sparks J. Javorsky J. Pohlman A. Bishop-Marbury (1991) ArticleTitleIdentifying native language difficulties among FL learners in college: A FL learning disability? Journal of Learning Disabilities 24 530–541 Occurrence Handle1765728
E. Geva (1995) Orthography and cognitive processing in learning to read English and Hebrew I. Taylor D. R. Olson (Eds) Scripts and literacy Kluwer Netherlands 277–291
Geva, E., Mack, A., Merlbaum, C., Lam, M., & Wade-Wolley, L. (1998). Learning to read in a second language (L2): Does L2 oral proficiency matter? Paper presented to the fifth annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, San Diego, CA.
E. Geva L. S. Siegel (2000) ArticleTitleOrthographic and cognitive factors in the concurrent development of basic reading skills in two languages Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 12 1–30 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1008017710115
E. Geva L. Wade-Woolley (1998) Component processes in becoming English-Hebrew Biliterate A. Y. Durgunoglu L. Verhoeven (Eds) Literacy development in a multilingual context: Cross-cultural perspectives Erlbaum Hillsdale NJ 85–110
E. Geva Z. Yaghoub-Zadeh B. Schuster (2000) ArticleTitleUnderstanding individual differences in word recognition skills in ESL children Annals of Dyslexia 50 123–154
M. Gholamain E. Geva (1999) ArticleTitleOrthographic and cognitive factors in the concurrent development of basic reading skills in English and Persian Language Learning 49 183–217 Occurrence Handle10.1111/0023-8333.00087
S. Gillis D. Ravid (2000) Effects of phonology and morphology in children’s orthographic systems: A crosslinguistic study of Hebrew and Dutch E. Clark (Eds) The proceedings of the 31st annual child language research forum Center for the Study of Language and Information Stanford 203–210
I. Glantz (1991) Xemed, Ma’arexet L’bdika M’kifa Barak Information Systems Tel Aviv
W. Grabe (1991) ArticleTitleCurrent developments in second language reading research TESOL Quarterly 25 375–406
N. Greenbaum Y. Lichter (1996) Milot tefel [Hebrew word attack subtest] N. Greenbaum Y. Lichter (Eds) Ivxun Kri’a Ktiva [Reading and writing diagnoses] Oranim College Oranim 8
B. Hancin–Bhatt W. Nagy (1994) ArticleTitleLexical transfer and second language morphological development Applied Psycholinguistics 15 289–310
V. L. Hanson E. W. Goodell C. A. Perfetti (1991) ArticleTitleTongue–Twister effects in the silent reading of hearing and deaf college students Journal of Memory and Language 30 319–330 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0749-596X(91)90039-M
J. Kahn-Horwitz (1994) Developmental effects of reading without vowels University of Haifa Haifa, Israel
K. Koda (1992) ArticleTitleThe effects of lower-level processing skills on FL reading performance: Implications for instruction Modern Language Journal 76 502–512
B. Laufer (1995) The lexical threshold of second language reading comprehension: Where it is and how it relates to L1 reading ability K. Sajavaara C. Fairweather (Eds) Approaches to second language acquisition Jyvaskyla Cross Language Studies 17 Jyvaskyla 55–62
Levin, I., Ravid, D., & Rapaport, S. (1997). Developing morphological awareness and learning to write: A two – way street. Paper presented to the international symposium on Integrating Research and Practice in Literacy, London.
C. K. Leong R. M. Joshi (1997) Relating phonologic and orthographic processing to learning to read and spell C. K. Leong R. M. Joshi (Eds) Cross-language studies of learning to read and spell Kluwer Netherlands 1–29
I. Y. Liberman D. Shankweiler (1985) ArticleTitlePhonology and the problems of learning to read and write Remedial and Special Education 6 8–17
D. Mahony M. Singson V. Mann (2000) ArticleTitleReading ability and sensitivity to morphological relations Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 12 191–218 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1008136012492
P. Menyuk M. Chesnick (1997) ArticleTitleMetalinguistic skills, oral language knowledge, and reading Topics in Language Disorders 17 75–87
V. Muter M. Snowling (1998) ArticleTitleConcurrent and longitudinal predictors of reading: The role of metalinguistic and short term memory skills Reading Research Quarterly 33 320–337 Occurrence Handle10.1598/RRQ.33.3.4
H. Nassaji E. Geva (1999) ArticleTitleThe contribution of phonological and orthographic processing skills to adult ESL reading: Evidence from native speakers of Farsi Applied Psycholinguistics 20 241–267 Occurrence Handle10.1017/S0142716499002040
A. Olofsson J. Niedersoe (1997) Early language development and kindergarten phonological awareness as predictors of reading problems: From 3 to 8 years of age C. K. Leong R. M. Joshi (Eds) Cross-language studies of learning to read and spell Kluwer Netherlands 289–306
C. A. Perfetti (1985) Reading ability Oxford University Press New York
C. A. Perfetti S. Zhang I. Berent (1992) Reading in English and Chinese: Evidence for a “Universal” phonological principle R. Frost L. Katz (Eds) Orthography, phonology, morphology, and meaning Elsevier Amsterdam 227–248
D. Ravid (2001) ArticleTitleLearning to spell in Hebrew: Phonological and morphological factors Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14 459–485 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1011192806656
D. Ravid (2003) A developmental perspective on root perception in Hebrew and Palestinian Arabic J. Shimron (Eds) Language processing and acquisition in languages of Semitic, root-based, morphology John Benjamins Amsterdam 293–319
K. Rayner A. Pollatsek (1989) The psychology of reading Prentice Hall NJ
D. M. Scanlon F. R. Vellutino (1997) ArticleTitleA comparison of the instructional backgrounds and cognitive profiles of poor, average, and good readers who were initially identified as at risk for reading failure Scientific Studies of Reading 1 191–215
W. Schneider J. C. Naslund (1997) The early prediction of reading and spelling: Evidence from the Munich longitudinal study on the genesis of individual competencies C. K. Leong R. M. Joshi (Eds) Cross-Language Studies of Learning to Read and Spell Kluwer Netherlands 139–159
N. Segalowitz C. Poulsen M. Komoda (1991) Lower level components of reading skill in higher level bilinguals: Implications for reading instruction J. H. Hulstijn J. F. Matter (Eds) Reading in two languages Free University Press Amsterdam 15–30
M. Shany T. Zeiger D. Ravid (2001) ArticleTitlePitu’ax v’tikuf šel kley ivxun l’tahalixim bsisim b’kriya uv’xtiv: Mem’tsa’im al tif’kud kor’im t’kinim v’hatsa’ot l’šiluv kley ha’ivxun b’ha’araxot kor’im mit’kašim [The development and validation of tests for basic processes in reading and spelling: Performance of normally-achieving readers at various grade levels and implications for the assessment of individuals with reading disabilities] Script: Literacy Research, Theory and Practice 2 167–203
D. Shankweiler S. Crain L. Katz A. E. Fowler A. M. Liberman S. A. Brady et al. (1995) ArticleTitleCognitive profiles of reading-disabled children: Comparison of language skills in phonology, morphology and syntax Psychological Science 6 149–156
D. L. Share (1995) ArticleTitlePhonological recoding and self-teaching: Sine qua non of reading acquisition Cognition 55 151–218 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0010-0277(94)00645-2 Occurrence Handle7789090
D. L. Share K. E. Stanovich (1995) ArticleTitleCognitive processes in early reading development: Accommodating individual differences into a model of acquisition Issues in Education 1 1–57
J. Shimron (1993) ArticleTitleThe role of vowels in reading: A review of studies of English and Hebrew Psychological Bulletin 114 52–67 Occurrence Handle10.1037/0033-2909.114.1.52
J. Shimron (2003) Word decomposition in Hebrew as a Semitic language E. M. H. Assink D. Sandra (Eds) Reading Complex Words: Cross-Language Studies Kluwer New York 93–111
H. W. Smith (1975) Strategies of social research: The methodological imagination Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ
C. E. Snow M. S. Burns P. Griffin (Eds) (1998) Preventing reading difficulties in young children National Academic Press Washington, DC
R. L. Sparks (1995) ArticleTitleExamining the linguistic coding differences hypothesis to explain individual differences in foreign language learning Annals of Dyslexia 45 187–214
R. L. Sparks L. Ganschow (1993a) ArticleTitleSearching for the cognitive locus of foreign language learning difficulties: Linking native and foreign language learning Modern Language Journal 77 289–302
R. L. Sparks L. Ganschow (1993) ArticleTitleThe impact of native language learning problems on foreign language learning: Case study illustrations of the linguistic coding deficit hypothesis Modern Language Journal 77 58–74
R. L. Sparks L. Ganschow J. Patton (1995) ArticleTitlePrediction of performance in first-year foreign language courses: Connections between native and foreign language learning Journal of Educational Psychology 87 638–655 Occurrence Handle10.1037/0022-0663.87.4.638
K. E. Stanovich P. J. Stanovich (1995) ArticleTitleHow research might inform the debate about early reading acquisition Journal of Research in Reading 18 87–105
J. Stevens (1986) Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences Erlbaum Hillsdale, NJ
A. Tyler W. Nagy (1990) ArticleTitleUse of derivational morphology during reading Cognition 36 17–34 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0010-0277(90)90052-L Occurrence Handle2383968
K. P. Bos Particlevan den B. J. H. Zijlstra H. C. lutjie Spelberg (2002) ArticleTitleLife-span data on continuous-naming speeds of numbers, letters, colors, and pictured objects, and word-reading speed Scientific Studies of Reading 6 25–49 Occurrence Handle10.1207/S1532799XSSR0601_02
F. R. Vellutino D. M. Scanlon (1986) Linguistic coding and metalinguistic awareness: Their relationship to verbal memory and code acquisition in poor and normal readers D. B. Yaden S. Templeton (Eds) Metalinguistic awareness and beginning literacy Heinemann Portsmouth, NH 115–141
L. Verhoeven (1991) Acquisition of biliteracy J. H. Hulstijn J. F. Matter (Eds) Reading in two languages Free University Press Amsterdam 61–74
Wade-Woolley, L., Chiappe, P., & Siegel, L. S. (1998). Learning to read in a second language: Does phonological awareness matter? Paper presented to the fifth annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, San Diego, CA.
R. K. Wagner T. A. Barker (1994) The development of orthographic processing ability V. W. Berninger (Eds) The varieties of orthographic knowledge: Theoretical and developmental issues Kluwer Netherlands 243–276
R. K. Wagner J. K. Torgesen C. A. Rashotte S. A. Hecht T. A. Barker S. R. Burgess et al. (1997) ArticleTitleChanging relations between phonological processing abilities and word-level reading as children develop from beginning to skilled readers: A 5-year longitudinal study Developmental Psychology 33 468–479 Occurrence Handle10.1037/0012-1649.33.3.468 Occurrence Handle9149925
R. Woodcock (1987) Woodcock reading mastery test-revised American Guidance Circle Pines, MN
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kahn-Horwitz, J., Shimron, J. & Sparks, R.L. Predicting Foreign Language Reading Achievement in Elementary School Students. Read Writ 18, 527–558 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-005-3179-x
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-005-3179-x