Kathryn Garforth, PhD, Special Education
The Influence of Chinese Word Reading Skills on English Reading and Spelling Development
Supervisor: Dr. Linda Siegel
Tuesday, April 10, 2018 | 4:00 p.m.| Ponderosa Commons Oak House, Room 1306A, 6445 University Boulevard
Abstract
The present study examined literacy skills in 78 participants who had English as a second language (ESL) in grades 2-4, who had been attending school in English since kindergarten and had a Chinese language as their first language. These participants were tested on word reading, pseudoword reading, spelling, pseudoword spelling, and phonological awareness in English as well as word reading in Chinese. This study found that participants were able to become proficient at reading and spelling in English. The participants’ Chinese word reading ability was correlated with their phonological awareness and the spelling of English and pseudowords. However, when including both phonological awareness and Chinese reading ability in the regression equations, Chinese word reading ability was the only a significant predictor of pseudoword spelling ability. These results show the importance of understanding the literacy skills of an individual who has ESL in their first language as well as the language in which they are being instructed.
