Abstract
The relationships between phonological awareness, rapid naming, short term verbal memory, letter knowledge, visual skills and word reading in kindergarten, and the predictive patterns from kindergarten to first grade were examined in 41 Chinese-Dutch bilingual children living in the Netherlands in both their first language (Chinese) and second language (Dutch). In kindergarten, Chinese word reading was predicted by Chinese phonological awareness, and Dutch word reading was predicted by Dutch phonological awareness and letter knowledge. There was a robust autoregressive effect of word reading from kindergarten to first grade in both Chinese and Dutch. Follow-up mediation analyses further showed that both phonological awareness in Chinese and phonological awareness combined with letter knowledge in Dutch in kindergarten had an indirect effect on Grade 1 word reading via kindergarten word reading. Although cross-language correlation was found in word reading for bilingual children in kindergarten, Dutch word reading did not add to the prediction of Chinese word reading when Chinese precursor measures were taken into account.
Highlights
The number of children learning a second language worldwide is increasing at a rapid speed
To fill these gaps in research, the present study examined the contribution of cognitive-linguistic predictors of reading skills in kindergarten and first grade in bilingual children whose first language is logographic (Chinese) and the second language as a transparent alphabetic language (Dutch), in the Netherland
The present study investigated the role of predictors in early reading concurrently and longitudinally among 41 Chinese-Dutch bilingual kindergarten children in the Netherlands
Summary
The number of children learning a second language worldwide is increasing at a rapid speed. Previous research has shown the concurrent and longitudinal predictive relationships between cognitive-linguistic skills with reading performance, such as phonological processing skills (phonological awareness, rapid naming, and shortterm verbal memory) and letter knowledge among bilingual children who learned two alphabetic languages (e.g., Gottardo & Lafrance, 2005; Swanson et al, 2011) or a nonalphabetic first language (Chinese) along with an alphabetic language (e.g., Cheung et al, 2010; Lin et al, 2018; Wang et al, 2014a). The longitudinal design in the present study may help to identify prereading precursors affecting subsequent reading acquisition and suggest new approaches for identifying children who are at risk for reading problems
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