Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T18:58:49.102Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

French immersion experience and reading skill development in at-risk readers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2011

RICHARD S. KRUK  and
KRISTIN A. A. REYNOLDS
RICHARD S. KRUK*
Affiliation:
University of Manitoba
KRISTIN A. A. REYNOLDS
Affiliation:
University of Manitoba
*
Address for correspondence: Richard S. Kruk, Department of Psychology, 190 Dysart Road, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3T 2N2. e-mail: krukr@cc.umanitoba.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We tracked the developmental influences of exposure to French on developing English phonological awareness, decoding and reading comprehension of English-speaking at-risk readers from Grade 1 to Grade 3. Teacher-nominated at-risk readers were matched with not-at-risk readers in French immersion and English language programs. Exposure to spoken French phonetic and syllabic forms and to written French orthographic and morphological forms by children attending French immersion programs was expected to promote phonological, decoding and reading comprehension achievement. Growth in all outcomes was found, with children in immersion experiencing higher final status in phonological awareness and more rapid growth and higher final status in decoding, using multilevel modeling. At-risk readers in French immersion experienced faster growth and higher final status in reading comprehension. Benefits to reading of exposure to an additional language are discussed in relation to cross-language transfer, phonological grain size and enhanced executive control processes.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , June 2012 , pp. 580 - 610
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

This study was supported by a standard research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The authors thank Jane Ritcher, Antonella Sciangula and Jaga Beimcik for assistance in data collection, and the children, parents and teachers who participated in the study.

References

REFERENCES

Anthony, J. L. & Francis, D. J. (2005). Development of phonological awareness. Current Directions in Psychological Science 14, 255–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anthony, J. L., Lonigan, C. J., Driscoll, K., Phillips, B. M. & Burgess, S. R. (2003). Phonological sensitivity: A quasi-parallel progression of word structure units and cognitive operations. Reading Research Quarterly 38, 470–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E. (1986). Factors in the growth of linguistic awareness. Child Development 57, 498–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy, and cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruck, M. (1982). Language disabled children: Performance in an additive bilingual education program. Applied Psycholinguistics 3, 45–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruck, M. & Genesee, F. (1995). Phonological awareness in young second language learners. Journal of Child Language 22, 307–324.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bruck, M., Genesee, F. & Caravolas, M. (1997). A cross-linguistic study of early literacy acquisition. In Blachman, B. (ed.), Foundations of reading acquisition and dyslexia: Implications for early intervention, 145–62. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bruck, M., Tucker, G. R. & Jakimik, J. (1975). Are French immersion programs suitable for working class children? Word 27, 311–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cain, K. (2006). Individual differences in children's memory and reading comprehension: An investigation of semantic and inhibitory deficits. Memory 14, 553–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cisero, C. A. & Royer, J. M. (1995). The development and cross-language transfer of phonological awareness. Contemporary Educational Psychology 20, 275–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comeau, L., Cormier, P., Grandmaison, E. & Lacroix, D. (1999). A longitudinal study of phonological processing skills in children learning to read in a second language. Journal of Educational Psychology 91, 29–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Compton, D. L. (2000). Modeling the growth of decoding skills in first-grade children. Scientific Studies of Reading 4, 219–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deacon, S. H., Wade-Woolley, L. & Kirby, J. (2007). Crossover: The role of morphological awareness in French immersion children's reading. Developmental Psychology 43, 732–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deacon, S. H., Wade-Woolley, L. & Kirby, J. R. (2009). Flexibility in young second-language learners: Examining the language specificity of orthographic processing. Journal of Research in Reading 32, 215–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Droop, M. & Verhoeven, L. (1998). Reading comprehension problems in second language learners. In Reitsma, P. & Verhoeven, L. (eds), Problems and interventions in literacy development, 193–208. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Genesee, F. (1976). The role of intelligence in second language learning. Language Learning 26, 267–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Genesee, F. (2007). French immersion and at-risk students: A review of research evidence. Canadian Modern Language Review 63, 655–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Genesee, F. & Jared, D. (2008). Literacy development in French immersion programs. Canadian Psychology 49, 140–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geva, E. & Clifton, S. (1994). The development of first and second language reading skills in early French immersion. Canadian Modern Language Review 50, 646–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goetry, V., Wade-Woolley, L., Kolinsky, R. & Mousty, P. (2006). The role of stress processing abilities in the development of bilingual reading. Journal of Research in Reading 29, 349–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U. (2002). Phonology, reading development, and dyslexia: A cross-linguistic perspective. Annals of Dyslexia 52, 141–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U., Gombert, J.-E. & Barrera, L. (1998). Children's orthographic representations and linguistic transparency: Nonsense word reading in English, French, and Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics 19, 19–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogan, T. P., Catts, H. W. & Little, T. D. (2005). The relationship between phonological awareness and reading: Implications for the assessment of phonological awareness. Language, Speech & Hearing Services in Schools 36, 285–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jimenez, R. T., Garcia, G. E. & Pearson, P. D. (1995). Three children, two languages, and strategic reading: Case studies in bilingual/monolingual reading. American Educational Research Journal 32, 31–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keenan, J. M., Betjemann, R. S. & Olson, R. K. (2008). Reading comprehension tests vary in the skills they assess: Differential dependence on decoding and oral comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading 12, 281–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirby, J. R. & Savage, R. S. (2008). Can the simple view deal with the complexities of reading? Literacy 42, 75–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kovelman, I., Baker, S. A. & Petitto, L.-A. (2008). Age of first bilingual language exposure as a new window into bilingual reading development. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 11, 203–223.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuo, L.-J. & Anderson, R. C. (2010). Beyond cross-language transfer: Reconceptualizing the impact of early bilingualism on phonological awareness. Scientific Studies of Reading 14, 365–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lapkin, S., Hart, D. & Turnbull, M. (2003). Grade 6 French immersion students' performance on large-scale reading, writing, and mathematics tests: Building explanations. Alberta Journal of Educational Research 49, 6–23.Google Scholar
Leikin, M., Schwartz, M. & Share, D. L. (2010). General and specific benefits of bi-literate bilingualism: A Russian–Hebrew study of beginning literacy. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 23, 269–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacCoubrey, S. J., Wade-Woolley, L., Klinger, D. & Kirby, J. R. (2004). Early identification of at-risk L2 readers. The Canadian Modern Language Review 61, 11–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manitoba Education, Training and Youth (2002). French immersion in Manitoba. Winnipeg: Manitoba Education, Training and Youth, Bureau de l'éducation française Division (BEF). Available at: www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/docs/french_imm/fr-imm-mb.pdf.Google Scholar
McBride-Chang, C., Tong, X., Shu, H., Wong, A. M.-Y., Leung, K. & Tardif, T. (2008). Syllable, phoneme, and tone: Psycholinguistic units in early Chinese and English word recognition. Scientific Studies of Reading 12, 171–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCoach, B. D., O'Connell, A. A., Reis, S. M. & Levitt, H. A. (2006). Growing readers: A hierarchical linear model of children's reading growth during the first 2 years of school. Journal of Educational Psychology 98, 14–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ringbom, H. (2007). Cross-linguistic similarity in foreign language learning. North York, ON: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Rubin, H. & Turner, A. (1989). Linguistic awareness skills in grade one children in a French immersion setting. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 1, 73–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segalowitz, N. & Hebert, M. (1990). Phonological recoding in the first and second language reading of skilled bilinguals. Language Learning 40, 503–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seymour, P. H. K., Aro, M., Erskine, J. M. & Cost Action, Group. (2003). Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology 94, 143–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Share, D. L. (2008). On the Anglocentricities of current reading research and practice: The perils of overreliance on an ‘outlier’ orthography. Psychological Bulletin 134, 584–615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singer, J. D. & Willett, J. B. (2003). Applied longitudinal data analysis: Modeling change and event occurrence. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tingley, P. A., Dore, K. A., Lopez, A., Parsons, H., Campbell, E., Bird, E. K. & Cleave, P. (2004). A comparison of phonological awareness skills in early French immersion and English children. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 33, 263–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turnbull, M., Lapkin, S. & Hart, D. (2001). Grade 3 immersion students' performance in literacy and mathematics: Province-wide results from Ontario (1998–99). Canadian Modern Language Review 58, 9–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, R., Torgesen, J. & Rashotte, C. (1999). Comprehensive test of phonological processing. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed Inc.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1999). Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, G. (1993). Wide Range Achievement Test: Manual, 3rd edn.Wilmington, DE: Wide Range.Google Scholar
Wong, P. C. M. & Perrachione, T. K. (2007). Learning pitch patterns in lexical identification by native English-speaking adults. Applied Psycholinguistics 28, 565–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, C. (2000). Rhyme awareness, orthographic analogy use, phonemic awareness and reading: An examination of relationships. Educational Psychology 20, 5–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodcock, R. (1998). Woodcock Reading Mastery Test – revised [Normative update]. Minnesota: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Ziegler, J. C. & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: A psycholinguistic grain-size theory. Psychological Bulletin 131, 3–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed