In a 3-year longitudinal study, we examined the relationships between oral language development, early training and reading acquisition on word-identification and reading-comprehension tests administered to a sample of 687 French children. Hierarchical linear models showed that both phonological awareness and oral comprehension at the age of 4…

Previous studies have suggested that children with specific language impairment (SLI) risk encountering subsequent literacy difficulties, due to difficulties in phonological awareness (PA). This longitudinal study provides evidence in support of this view based on a group of 20 French-speaking children with SLI examined at the start of learning to…

In examining reading comprehension in a second language (L2), I have demonstrated that the prevailing metaphor of transfer of skills is misleading, and that what happens is access to an already existing general cognitive skill. There is evidence in first language (L1) and in L2 that accessing this skill when reading in an alphabetic language…