Importance of phonological and orthographic skills for English reading and spelling: A comparison of English monolingual and Mandarin-English bilingual children.

Abstract

This cross-sectional study examines the importance of English phonological and orthographic processing skills to English word reading and spelling in 3 groups of younger (8–9 years) and older (11–12 years) children from different language backgrounds: English monolingual, English first language (L1)–Mandarin second language (L2), and Mandarin L1–English L2. Results showed that performance on tasks of English phonological and orthographic processing was dependent on age and language background status. Both English monolingual and English-L1 children had better phonological processing skills compared to the Mandarin-L1 children, while the younger bilingual children had better orthographic processing skills compared to the English monolingual children. Separate regression analyses found that different skills contributed to English word reading and spelling for each language background group and within each age group. Orthographic processing was the only significant predictor of word reading and spelling for the English monolingual children. In contrast, phonological processing skills were important for word reading for the bilingual children and for spelling for the younger bilingual children. Though the predictors of word reading remained the same across age groups for all language groups, the predictors of spelling were different between the younger and older bilingual children. These findings support previous research on the influence of bilingual children’s early linguistic experience on L2 English literacy acquisition and question whether bilingual children follow similar stages to learning English as English monolinguals. Educational implications for bilingual learners are discussed.