Spelling Development and Metalinguistic Training before School Entrance: The Effects of Different Metalinguistic Training on Spelling Development in First Grade

Abstract

This paper presents the long term effects of two different metalinguistic intervention programs in kindergarten on spelling development. Experimental group 1 received a training program with activities that focused the children’s attention on the internal sound structure of words. Experimental group 2 received a training program with activities that focused the children’s attention on morphological parts of wards (e.g., prefixes, suffixes). A control group received no intervention but was regularly visited by the experimenter. Results from different metalinguistic pretests show that children with poorly educated mothers had the lowest scores before entering the experiment. The children received training 25 – 30 minutes weekly for a total period of 17 weeks. At the time of the pretest the age of the children was 5 years 10 months to 6 years 9 months. Both the group receiving metaphonological training and the group receiving metamorphological training benefited in terms of their spelling development. For the school measures, however, significant interactions between group and mother’s education suggested that children of poorly educated mothers profited the most from metaphonological training and that children with highly educated mothers profited the most from metamorphological training. Factor analysis of the pre-school measures shows that different linguistic and cognitive measures seems to contribute independently to spelling development. Some of the possible linguistic processes underlying the development of spelling are affected by metalinguistic training while others are not. Implications for teaching and therapy will be discussed.