Metalinguistic Awareness, Reading and Spelling: Roots and Branches of Literacy

Abstract

Studies on the role of metalinguistic awareness in emerging literacy have established that metalinguistic abilities at phonological, syntactic, print and pragmatic levels are linked to later attainments in literacy. Few have examined the interplay among these skills and developing reading and spelling. Using time‐reversed path analyses, this study explores the possibility that metalinguistic awareness registers stronger direct effects on literacy than early pre‐conventional reading and invented spelling skills. Sixty children aged 54 months (initially) were given measures of metalinguistic abilities, pre‐conventional reading and invented spelling on three occasions. This allowed the exploration of reciprocal relationships between pre‐conventional reading, invented spelling and metalinguistic abilities. On the fourth occasion, standardised tests of reading and spelling were administered. Results from time‐reversed path analysis show that pre‐conventional reading and invented spelling influenced each other across development and had stronger direct effects on subsequent literacy than did aspects of metalinguistic awareness. Pre‐literate metalinguistic abilities were shown to affect pre‐conventional reading and invented spelling skills and combine with these to influence further growth in literacy. The study’s results have implications for current models of literacy development.