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Article published In:
Written Language & Literacy
Vol. 22:1 (2019) ► pp.33–66

Reading comprehension across languages

Seven European orthographies and two international literacy assessments

| University of San Francisco
| University of California, Berkeley

Orthographic depth, the degree of spelling-to-sound consistency in a language, has been hypothesized to affect the ease with which children learn to read words. However, the relationship between orthographic depth and reading comprehension is less well understood. In this study, focusing on countries in which two international assessments (PISA and PIRLS) were given in two or more languages, we examine data from elementary and high-school readers of Finnish, Swedish, Italian, German, Dutch, French and English). Findings suggest that that there may be some trade-offs between shallow and deep orthographies in terms of the specific ways that they map onto the phonological and deep meaning representations required for cognitive processing during an activity such as comprehension. These trade-offs serve to differentially support or inhibit readers depending on where they are situated on the achievement continuum.

Keywords: comprehension, orthographic depth, cross-linguistic, reading competence
Article outline
  • The orthographic depth hypothesis
  • Research on orthographic depth, beginning reading, and skilled reading
  • Word recognition, orthography, and reading comprehension
  • Trade-offs between shallow and deep orthographies in decoding and comprehension
  • The current studies
  • Method
    • Design
    • Sample
    • The data set
      • PIRLS data
      • PISA data
    • Sampling methodologies
      • Inclusion criteria
    • Translation
    • Measures
      • Reading comprehension
      • Basic reading competence
      • Orthographic depth
      • Student background characteristics
    • Statistical techniques
      • Within country analyses
      • Across country analyses
  • Results: Study 1: Grade 4 students in PIRLS
    • Descriptive statistics
    • Testing hypotheses about orthographic depth
      • Orthographic depth mediates literacy performance for underperforming readers
      • Benefits of deep orthographies for competent readers
      • Variance in literacy performance in deep versus shallow orthographies
  • Results: Study 2: 15-year-olds in PISA
    • Descriptive statistics
    • Testing hypotheses about orthographic depth
      • Orthographic depth mediates literacy performance for underperforming readers
      • Benefits of deep orthographies for competent readers
      • Variance in literacy performance in deep versus shallow orthographies
  • Discussion
    • Limitations
    • Summary and conclusions
      • Language differences between below basic readers
      • Language differences between competent readers
      • Language differences in variance in reading comprehension
  • Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 20 November 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.00019.mcc
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