Orthographic learning and self-teaching in a bilingual and biliterate context

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Second Language Acquisition
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Investigating self-teaching mechanisms in foreign language literacy acquisition is crucial for understanding learning processes.
• The influence of bilingualism and biliteracy on developing reading skills in a new orthographic system requires further exploration.
• Previous research suggests orthographic distance between languages may impact second language learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the role of self-teaching in English as a foreign language (EFL) literacy acquisition among sixth-grade students.
• To compare the self-teaching abilities of three groups of children with varying linguistic and literacy backgrounds.
• To investigate the effect of bilingualism and biliteracy, specifically considering orthographic proximity, on English reading skills.

Main Methods:

• A standard two-session self-teaching paradigm was utilized with 88 sixth-grade children.
• Participants were divided into three groups: Russian-Hebrew bilinguals with L1 Russian literacy, Russian-Hebrew bilinguals with L1 Hebrew literacy, and Hebrew-speaking monolinguals.
• Posttest measures included naming speed, accuracy, and orthographic choice to assess orthographic learning.

Main Results:

• All three groups demonstrated evidence of self-teaching in English reading, including naming speed and orthographic recognition, after four years of instruction.
• The Russian-Hebrew speaking biliterate group, with prior Russian literacy, showed a partial advantage in initial pseudoword decoding.
• This group exhibited clear superiority in later orthographic learning measures, supporting the script dependence hypothesis.

Conclusions:

• Children can effectively self-teach aspects of English literacy, even with limited formal instruction.
• Prior literacy in a language with orthographic similarity to English (Russian) enhances self-teaching and learning of English orthography.
• The findings support the script dependence hypothesis, indicating that the characteristics of the native writing system influence second language literacy acquisition.