Abstract
While formal reading instruction only starts at school, the acquisition of competencies relevant to reading has its origins in early childhood. According to the model used in the project »Wortschatz und Wortlesen. Aneignung im fruhen Schulalter« (WuW), early reading competence is based on three pillars: print knowledge, orally acquired linguistic competencies, and precursor abilities. The present article discusses results regarding competencies relevant to reading at the point of school entry, based on the data of 137 Swiss children with Swiss German as their fi rst language. Our aim is to examine the thesis that besides the empirically proven impact of phonological awareness and letter knowledge other dimensions need to be considered in order to do justice the complexity of early reading. Results show that in a synchronic perspective, there is only a weak correlation between vocabulary breadth as well as depth and word reading. Print knowledge and the metalinguistic competence of word awareness, in contrast, seem to be signifi cant factors.
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