The Influence of First Language on Reading and Spelling in English Linda Siegel University of British Columbia Vancouver, CANADA

Aims of the Study Identify children at risk for literacy difficulties Provide an appropriate intervention Assess the effectiveness of the intervention

Longitudinal Study Screening at age 5 when children enter school Tested every year on reading, spelling, arithmetic, language and memory skills Results at grade 7 – age 13

Longitudinal Sample All the children in the North Vancouver School District 30 schools Varying SES levels 20% English Language Learners (ESL) Inclusion

Arabic Armenian Bulgarian Cantonese Croatian Czech Dutch Farsi Japanese Korean Kurdish Mandarin Norwegian Polish Punjabi Romanian LANGUAGES IN THE STUDY German Greek Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Finnish Russian Serbian Slovak Spanish Swedish Tagalog Tamil Turkish

KINDERGARTEN GRADE 5 L1 EnglishELL Kindergarten

KINDERGARTEN GRADE 5 Dyslexic Normal Dyslexic Normal Grade 7 L1 EnglishELL

8 Influence of First Language English Slavic Farsi-Persian Chinese Romance

9 Reading/Spelling Word recognition Fluency – word and pseudoword Pseudoword Reading Spelling

10 Reading Grade 3

11 1 Minute Word Reading

12 1 Minute Pseudoword Reading

13 Spelling Grade 3

14

15 Arabic 4-Feb.2010 UNESCO-DITT-Paris

English Spelling Portuguese L1

English Spelling Italian L1

English Spelling Arabic L1

Grade 5 Spelling A

20 Phonological Phoneme deletion Pseudoword spelling

21 Phoneme Deletion

22 Pseudoword Spelling

23 Syntactic Awareness

24 Jane ____her sister went up the hill. Dad ____ Bobby a letter yesterday. Oral cloze

25 Oral Cloze - Kindergarten

26 Oral Cloze – Grade 3

27 Memory for Sentences – Grade 3

Conclusions Children’s first language has an influence on the acquisition of language and literacy skills in a second language. Bilingualism is an advantage in the acquisition of literacy and language skills.

Word Reading Portuguese L1

Word Reading Italian L1

Word Reading Arabic L1

Woodcock Word Attack (Pseudoword Reading) dee gouch cigbet bafmotbem monglustamer

Word Attack Portuguese L1

Word Attack Italian L1

Word Attack Arabic L1

Morphology

37 Hungarian for “at risk of dyslexia”. Diszlexiaveszélyeztetettség

Morphological - Words They need to diversionary diversity diversion diversify

39 Morphological - Words They need to diversionary diversity diversion diversify

40 Morphological Task- Words

Morphology Related to reading comprehension Related to spelling A better predictor of reading comprehension and spelling than phonological awareness or syntactic awareness

Kindergarten SYNTACTIC AWARENESS

Grade 5 SYNTACTIC AWARENESS

The Influence of First Language on Reading and Spelling in English Linda Siegel University of British Columbia Vancouver, CANADA