Abstract
In a cross-sectional study, we investigated the development of fluent reading and spelling in the first 3 years of learning Arabic. The goals of our study were to: (1) validate suitable measures for fluent reading and spelling in the first 3 years of learning Arabic; (2) trace the developmental course of the relationship between fluent reading and spelling in the first 3 years of learning Arabic; and (3) evaluate potential gender differences in literacy skills and intelligence in the setting. The performance of 111 native Arabic students of the first three grades was assessed for one-minute reading, spelling and Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM). Results showed significant developments in all measures across age. Reading fluency correlated highly with spelling measures. This association was more pronounced in the first but not in later graders. Boys performed better than girls as indicated by each of the measures used. Further analyses of first grade data indicate a potential role for the interaction of reading, gender, and CPM on the spelling scores. Based on our findings, we suggest that, in the Arabic orthography, both alphabetic and orthographic skills are adopted first for spelling. However, developing orthographic strategies in spelling does not guarantee the same transition to fluent reading processes as children in the first 3 years of learning Arabic are not yet exposed to unvowelized scripts forcing the reader to rely on orthographic strategies in order to read fluently. Moreover, our results indicate a potential role of visualization and spatial abilities in the relationship between fluent reading and spelling in the early stages of literacy acquisition, but not in later grades.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Children were randomly selected based on alphabetically-ordered lists of classes.
An example of this is the phonological representation of standard/ð/as/d/in spoken Arabic.
References
Abu-Rabia, S. (1995). Learning to read in Arabic: Reading, syntactic, orthographic and working memory skills in normally achieving and poor Arabic readers. Reading Psychology, 16, 351–394.
Abu-Rabia, S. (1997). Reading in Arabic orthography: The effect of vowels and context on reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers in reading paragraphs, sentences, and isolated words. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 26, 465–482.
Abu-Rabia, S. (1998). Reading Arabic texts: Effects of text type, reader type and vowelization. Reading and Writing: Interdisciplinary Journal, 10, 105–119.
Abu-Rabia, S. (2000). Effects of exposure to literary Arabic on reading comprehension in a diglossic situation. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 13, 147–157.
Abu-Rabia, S. (2001). The role of vowels in reading Semitic scripts: Data from Arabic and Hebrew. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 14, 39–59.
Abu-Rabia, S. (2002). Reading in a root-based-morphology language: The case of Arabic. Journal of Research in Reading, 25, 299–309.
Abu-Rabia, S., & Taha, H. (2004). Reading and spelling error analysis of native Arabic dyslexic readers. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 17, 651–689.
Allred, R. A. (1990). Gender differences in spelling achievement in grades 1 through 6. Journal of Educational Research, 834, 187–193.
Azzam, R. (1993). The nature of Arabic reading and spelling errors of young children. A descriptive study. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 5, 355–385.
Bosman, A., & Van Orden, G. (1997). Why spelling is more difficult than reading. In C. A. Perfetti, L. Rieben, & M. Fayol (Eds.), Learning to spell: Research, theory, and practice across languages (pp. 173–194). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Chiarello, C., Welcome, S., Halderman, L., Towler, S., Julagay, J., Otto, R., et al. (2009). A large-scale investigation of lateralization in cortical anatomy and word reading: Are there sex differences? Neuropsychology, 23, 210–222.
Cohen-Mimran, R. (2009). The contribution of language skills to reading fluency: A comparison of two orthographies for Hebrew. Journal of Child Language, 36, 657–672.
Cotton, S., Kiely, P., Crewther, D. P., Thomson, B., Laycock, R., & Crewther, S. (2005). A normative and reliability study for the Raven’s coloured progressive matrices for primary school aged children from Victoria, Australia. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 647–659.
Ehri, L. (1997). Learning to read and learning to spell are one and the same, almost. In C. A. Perfetti, L. Rieben, & M. Fayol (Eds.), Learning to spell: Research, theory, and practice across languages (pp. 237–269). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Ehri, L., & Wilce, L. (1982). Recognition of spellings printed in lower and mixed case: Evidence for orthographic images. Journal of Literacy Research, 14, 219–230.
Elbeheri, G., & Everatt, J. (2007). Literacy ability and phonological processing skills amongst dyslexic and non-dyslexic speakers of Arabic. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 20, 273–294.
El-Hassan, S. (1979). Educated spoken Arabic in Egypt and the Levant: A critical review and related concepts. Archivum Linguisticum, 8, 112–132.
Feingold, A. (1988). Cognitive gender differences are disappearing. American Psychologist, 43, 95–103.
Frith, U. (1985). Beneath the surface of development dyslexia. In K. Patterson, J. Marshall, & M. Coltheart (Eds.), Surface dyslexia (pp. 301–330). London, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hanna, S., & Greis, N. (1972). Writing Arabic. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. BriU.
Horne, J. (2007). Gender differences in computerized and conventional educational tests. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 23, 47–55.
Hutt, C., & Hughes, M. (2004). Sex differences in childhood. In R. L. Gregory (Ed.), The Oxford companion to the mind. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Hyde, J. S., & Linn, M. C. (1988). Gender differences in verbal ability: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 104, 53–69.
Jensen, A. R. (1998). The g factor: The science of mental ability. Westport, CN: Praeger.
Khaleefa, O., & Lynn, R. (2008). Normative data for Raven’s colored progressive matrices scale in Yemen. Psychological Reports, 103, 170–172.
Kimura, D. (1999). Sex and cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Landerl, K., & Wimmer, H. (2008). Development of word reading fluency and spelling in a consistent orthography: An 8-year follow-up. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 150–161.
Landerl, K., Wimmer, H., & Moser, E. (1997). Salzburger Lese- und Rechtschreibtest [Salzburg reading and spelling test]. Bern, Switzerland: Hans Huber.
Leppänen, U., Niemi, P., Aunola, K., & Nurmi, J. (2006). Development of reading and spelling Finnish from preschool to grade 1 and grade 2. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10, 3–30.
Lerkkanen, M., Rasku-Puttonen, H., Aunola, K., & Nurmi, J. (2004). The developmental dynamics of literacy skills during the first grade. Educational Psychology, 24, 793–810.
Lynn, R. (1994). Sex differences in intelligence and brain size: A paradox resolved. Personality and Individual Differences, 17, 257–271.
Lynn, R. (1999). Sex differences in intelligence and brain size: A developmental theory. Intelligence, 27, 1–12.
Lynn, R., Backhoff, E., & Contreras-Niño, L. (2004). Sex differences on g, reasoning and visualization tested by the progressive matrices among 7–10 year olds: Some normative data for Mexico. Personality and Individual Differences, 36, 779–787.
Mackintosh, N. (1998). IQ and human intelligence. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Marsh, G., & Desberg, P. (1983). Development of strategies in the acquisition of reading. Journal of Reading Behavior, 9, 391–394.
May, P. (2002). Hamburger Schreib-Probe für die Klassen 5 bis 9, [Hanmbuger Writing Sample Test for class 5 through 9] HSP 5–9 B. Hamburg, Germany: Verlag für pädagogische Medien.
Meyler, A., & Breznitz, Z. (1998). Developmental associations between verbal and visual short-term memory and the acquisition of decoding skill. Reading and Writing, 10, 519–540.
Millar, D., & Barber, P. (1981). Sex differences in verbal skills: Use of spelling-sound and lexical information. Current Psychological Research, 1, 121–127.
Moll, K., & Landerl, K. (2009). Double dissociation between reading and spelling deficits. Scientific Studies of Reading, 13, 359–382.
Prefetti, C., & Hart, L. (2001). The lexical bases of comprehension skill. In D.Gorfien (Ed.), On the consequences of meaning selection (pp. 67–86). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Raven, J. (2000). The Raven’s progressive matrices: Change and stability over culture and time. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 1–48.
Raven, J., Bulheller, S., Court, J., Häcker, H., & Raven, J. (2006). Coloured progressive matrices mit der parallelform des tests und der puzzle-form [Colored progressive matrices, a parallel form of the test and the puzzle form] (3rd ed.). Frankfurt, Germany: Harcourt Test Services.
Richardson, J. (1997). Conclusions. In P. J. Caplan, M. Crawford, J. S. Hyde, & J. T. E. Richardson (Eds.), Gender differences in cognition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rutter, M., Caspi, A., Fergusson, D., Horwood, L. J., Goodman, R., Maughan, B., et al. (2004). Sex differences in developmental reading disability: New findings from 4 epidemiological studies. Journal of the American Medical Association, 291, 2007–2012.
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2003). Linguistic distance and initial reading acquisition: The case of Arabic diglossia. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 431–451.
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2004). The impact of phonemic and lexical distance on the phonological analysis of words and pseudowords in a diglossic context. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 495–512.
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2005). Correlates of reading fluency in Arabic: Diglossic and orthographic factors. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 18, 559–582.
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2007). Linguistic constraints on children’s ability to isolate. phonemes in Arabic. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 605–625.
Seymour, P., Aro, M., & Erskine, J. (2003). Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 143–174.
Share, D., & Levin, I. (1999). Learning to read and write in Hebrew. In M. Harris, G. Hatano, M. Harris, & G. Hatano (Eds.), Learning to read and write: A cross-linguistic perspective (pp. 89–111). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Snowling, M. (2000). Dyslexia: A cognitive developmental perspective (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.
Stahl, S., Pagnucco, J., & Suttles, C. (1996). First graders’ reading and writing instruction in traditional and process-oriented classes. Journal of Educational Research, 89, 131–144.
Taouk, M., & Coltheart, M. (2004). The cognitive processes involved in learning to read in Arabic. Reading and Writing, 17, 27–57.
Thomson, B., Crewther, D., & Crewther, S. (2006). Wots that werd? Pseudowords (non-words) maybe a misleading measure of phonological skills in young learner readers. Dyslexia, 12, 289–299.
Willburger, E., & Landerl, K. (2009). Der Ein-Minuten Leseflüssigkeitstest-ein Verfahren zur Diagnose der Leistung im Wort- und Pseudowortlesen [The one-minute-Fluent Reading Test-a method for the diagnosis of word and pseudoword reading]. Tests und Trends, 7, 65–80.
Wimmer, H., & Goswami, U. (1994). The influence of orthographic consistency on reading development: Word recognition in English and German children. Cognition, 51, 91–103.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mohamed, W., Elbert, T. & Landerl, K. The development of reading and spelling abilities in the first 3 years of learning Arabic. Read Writ 24, 1043–1060 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-010-9249-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-010-9249-8