Abstract
Background: Phonological awareness (PA) skills and working memory (WM) are universally regarded as crucial precursors to skilled reading. The orthography of the language being read influences the ease with which a child learns to read. Research has been undertaken on reading in languages with an opaque orthography. Research on the role of PA and WM in Afrikaans with its transparent orthography is limited.Aim: The study investigated and described the role of WM in the acquisition of PA and ultimately reading in Afrikaans.Setting: The research study was conducted in private schools with Afrikaans as the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) in Grade 2.Method: A descriptive research design with correlational components was applied.Results: Phonetic decoding was employed more than eidetic decoding. Word reading skills developed rapidly and exceeded the expectations in the first two quarters of the year. Participants who read the comprehension test fluently scored higher on the questions than those who did not read fluently. The correlation between WM and reading comprehension was not statistically significant. The statistically significant correlation between WM and word reading seems to be present in both transparent and opaque orthographies. The statistically significant correlation between PA and word reading was not found in other transparent orthographies. The correlation between phonemic awareness (PhA) and word reading is the same in other orthographies.Conclusion: The statistically significant correlation between WM and word reading indicates that WM supports reading development as the ability to hold information in memory supports phoneme-grapheme associations.
Highlights
The development of proficient reading skills is a fundamental objective of school (Dessemontet & De Chambrier 2015)
These authors reported that readers of German have an advantage in word reading skills compared to readers of English, which has an opaque orthography
The participants in the current study decoded more words phonetically as the orthographic representations in their mental lexicons are still being constructed (Schmalz et al 2013). The latter view is supported by Rakhlin et al (2019) who reported that all basic decoding skills are mastered by the end of Grade 2. Orthographic mapping for both transparent and opaque orthographies is activated through frequent reading as basic decoding skills develop, which will result in more complete word spelling being stored in the mental lexicons of the reader, building the sight word vocabulary (Li et al 2016; Rakhlin et al 2019)
Summary
The development of proficient reading skills is a fundamental objective of school (Dessemontet & De Chambrier 2015). The ability to read and subsequently to learn through reading is important in the academic success of learners (Finlayson 2017). Adequate phoneme-grapheme association knowledge secures the connection in memory (Li et al 2016). Phonemic awareness (PhA) skills, primarily blending and segmentation are required to connect the pronunciation and spelling of a word and to preserve these words in the memory (Ehri 2014). Research suggests that working memory (WM) is one of the most important predictors of children’s reading abilities and later academic success (Giofrѐ, Donolato & Mammarella 2018; Toffalini et al 2019). Research on the role of PA skills and WM in Afrikaans is limited. Research on the role of PA and WM in Afrikaans with its transparent orthography is limited
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
