The present study compared the early Hebrew (L2) literacy development of three groups; two groups of bilinguals — bi-literate and mono-literate Russian-Hebrew speakers, and a third group of monolingual Hebrew-speakers. We predicted that bi-literacy rather than bilingualism is the key variable as regards L2 literacy learning. In a longitudinal design, a variety of linguistic, meta-linguistic and cognitive tasks were administered at the commencement of first grade, with Hebrew reading and spelling assessed at the end of the year. Results demonstrated that bi-literate bilinguals were far in advance of both mono-literate (Russian-Hebrew) bilinguals and mono-lingual Hebrew-speakers on all reading fluency measures at the end of Grade 1. Bi-literate bilinguals also showed a clear advantage over mono-literate bilingual and mono-lingual peers on all phonological awareness tasks. The mono-literate bilinguals also demonstrated some modest gains over their monolingual peers in Grade 1 reading accuracy. All three groups performed similarly on L2 linguistic tasks. These findings confirm Bialystok’s (2002) assertion that bilingualism per se may not be the most influential factor in L2 reading acquisition. Early (L1) literacy acquisition, however, can greatly enhance L2 literacy development. The present findings also suggest that the actual mechanism of cross-linguistic transfer is the insight gained into the alphabetic principle common to all alphabetic writing systems and not merely the knowledge of a specific letter-sound code such as the Roman orthography.
2023. The Role of Context in Learning to Read Languages That Use Different Writing Systems and Scripts: Urdu and English. Languages 8:1 ► pp. 86 ff.
Gottardo, Alexandra, Xi Chen & Michelle Ru Yun Huo
2021. Understanding Within‐ and Cross‐Language Relations Among Language, Preliteracy Skills, and Word Reading in Bilingual Learners: Evidence From the Science of Reading. Reading Research Quarterly 56:S1
Ne'eman, Ariel & Shelley Shaul
2021. Readiness or Impairment: Cognitive and Linguistic Differences Between Children Who Learn to Read and Those Who Exhibit Difficulties With Reading in Kindergarten Compared to Their Achievements at the End of First Grade. Frontiers in Psychology 12
EVIATAR, ZOHAR, HAITHAM TAHA, VIKKI COHEN & MILA SCHWARTZ
2018. Word learning by young sequential bilinguals: Fast mapping in Arabic and Hebrew. Applied Psycholinguistics 39:3 ► pp. 649 ff.
Shahar-Yames, Daphna, Zohar Eviatar & Anat Prior
2018. Separability of Lexical and Morphological Knowledge: Evidence from Language Minority Children. Frontiers in Psychology 9
이지영
2017. Maternal beliefs in children’s bilingualism: A case study on Korean mothers in the United States. International Journal of Early Childhood Education 23:1 ► pp. 23 ff.
Le Pichon, Emmanuelle & Maretha de Jonge
2016. Linguistic and psychological perspectives on prolonged periods of silence in dual-language learners. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 19:4 ► pp. 426 ff.
Kahn‐Horwitz, Janina, Mila Schwartz & David Share
2011. Acquiring the complex English orthography: a triliteracy advantage?. Journal of Research in Reading 34:1 ► pp. 136 ff.
Schwartz, Mila
2008. Exploring the Relationship between Family Language Policy and Heritage Language Knowledge Among Second Generation Russian–Jewish Immigrants in Israel. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 29:5 ► pp. 400 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 december 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
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