L’influence précoce des connaissances morphologiques et orthographiques sur l’apprentissage de la lecture : une étude longitudinale de la GSM au CE1

Abstract

There is now a great deal of evidence to support the major role of phonological knowledge in literacy development at the beginning of learning to read in different languages. But the early influence of morphological and orthographic knowledge on learning to read has been revealed in only a few studies and needs to be confirmed. The aim of this research was to “simultaneously” and “longitudinally” investigate these three aspects of word structure knowledge in prereaders (kindergarteners) and beginning readers (1st graders) to determine whether morphological and orthographic knowledge available in kindergarten and 1st grade uniquely predicted short-term (1 year later) and middle-term (2 years later) reading achievement. Sixty-four children (mean age: 5.8 years at the start of the study; all non-readers) were followed from kindergarten to 2nd grade. Their phonological (syllable and phoneme extraction), morphological (judgment of morphological relationship and word base extraction) and orthographic knowledge (recognition of permissible orthographic patterns) was assessed in kindergarten, then in 1st grade, and their performance in word and pseudoword reading was measured in 1st and 2nd grades. A series of fixed-order hierarchical regression analyses was performed, controlling for the effects of a number of other variables whose links with learning to read have already been well documented (nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary skills and phonological knowledge) and introducing morphological and orthographic knowledge alternatively at the last step in the equations. The results revealed (1) that morphological knowledge assessed in kindergarten made a significant independent contribution to 1st grade real word reading (5%) and to 2nd grade real and pseudoword reading (4% and 12%), while (2) orthographic knowledge assessed in 1st grade made a significant independent contribution to 2nd grade real and pseudoword reading (6% and 5%). This longitudinal study conducted from kindergarten to 2nd grade provides new data about the early developmental trajectory of the relationships between morphological and orthographic word structure knowledge and learning to read. In particular, it highlights the role of morphological knowledge acquired through an implicit way, with the development of oral language skills, in literacy development. These empirical data are discussed in line with the “triple word form” theory according to which the three kinds of knowledge (phonological, orthographic and morphological) about word form grow in interrelation since the very beginning of learning to read and, at an early age, contribute conjointly to literacy development.