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Reading and Writing

, Volume 30, Issue 6, pp 1311–1334 | Cite as

Predictors of reading and comprehension abilities in bilingual and monolingual children: a longitudinal study on a transparent language

  • Stéphanie Bellocchi
  • Valentina Tobia
  • Paola Bonifacci
Article
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Abstract

Many studies have shown that learning to read in a second language (L2) is similar, in many ways, to learning to read in a first language (L1). Nevertheless, reading development also relies upon oral language proficiency and is greatly influenced by orthographic consistency. This longitudinal study aimed to analyze the role of linguistic predictors (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, pseudoword repetition, morphosyntactic comprehension, lexical knowledge and rapid naming) in reading outcomes (fluency, accuracy and comprehension) in a group of bilingual children (n = 30) reading Italian as an L2, compared to a group of monolingual children (n = 56). We ran a multi-group structural equation model. Our findings showed that rapid automatized naming was a significant predictor of reading speed in both groups. However, the study revealed different patterns of predictors for reading accuracy, predictors for monolinguals being LK, phonological awareness and lexical knowledge, while pseudoword repetition was a predictor for bilinguals. Morphosyntactic comprehension was the most significant predictor of comprehension skills in bilingual children. Implications for clinical and educational settings are discussed.

Keywords

Reading Linguistic predictors Simple view of reading Bilingualism Second language learners 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Marinella Illuminati and Sandra Bozzi for their precious help in collecting part of the data presented in this paper. We also wish to thank the school’s director and the teachers, who allowed us to carry out this research. Finally, we are grateful to the children and their parents who accepted to participate in this research.

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© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Epsylon Research Unit EA 4556, Department of PsychologyPaul-Valéry University Montpellier 3Montpellier Cedex 5France
  2. 2.Department of PsychologyUniversity of Milano-BicoccaMilanItaly
  3. 3.Department of PsychologyUniversity of BolognaBolognaItaly

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