Abstract
This study examined within and cross-language relations, and specifically, the role of phonological awareness (PA) skills in reading among young Hindi-speaking children (L1) who were learning to read English (L2) in Delhi, India. Data was collected from 143 children in Grades 1 and 2 using measures validated for this population. The analyses examined the associations between L1 and L2 PA and decoding, both within and across the two languages. The results showed that PA skills within each language significantly predicted decoding in that language. Furthermore, there was evidence of cross-language transfer with Hindi PA significantly predicting English word reading even after controlling for English PA. English PA also significantly predicted Hindi decoding, however, these effects decreased once Hindi PA was added to the model. These findings emphasize the important role that both L1 and L2 PA plays in reading among emergent Hindi–English bilinguals. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings on literacy instruction in India are discussed.
Highlights
Literacy has the power to transform lives, among the world’s most vulnerable populations
Age was entered into the model first, followed by Hindi semantic fluency and Hindi rapid automatized naming (RAN) as covariates, and the Hindi phonological awareness (PA) tasks were entered in alternating order (Steps 3 and 4) to examine the contribution of each over and above the other
In this study we aimed to examine cross-language transfer of PA among emergent readers in India
Summary
Literacy has the power to transform lives, among the world’s most vulnerable populations. The educational policy for language instruction reflects the prevalence of multilingualism, requiring children to learn to read in three languages upon the completion of secondary school, of which two are typically Hindi and English (Joshi et al, 2017). Seen as a language of opportunity, schools are increasingly offering English as a medium of instruction starting in Grade 1. Children in these schools are expected to learn to read in the instructional medium (e.g., English) but they are often simultaneously taught one of the Indic languages (e.g., Hindi), requiring the mastery of two distinct writing systems upon school entry (Joshi et al, 2017)
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