Reading in English is an essential skill that emergent bilingual students in the United States (U.S.) must master to be successful in school and to fully take advantage of the affordances reading in English offers. The current meta-analysis examined the extent to which reading instruction improved English reading outcomes for preschool to grade 12…

Authors examined the relationship between individual differences in L1 print exposure and differences in early L1 skills and later L2 aptitude, L2 proficiency, and L2 classroom achievement. Participants were administered measures of L1 word decoding, spelling, phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, receptive vocabulary, and listening…

A focused scientific research effort on writing research and its relationship to language development and reading is needed to address the writing and broader literacy needs of today's and tomorrow's learners and workers. In the United States, as well as in many other nations, research on writing has been neglected in relation to the emphasis on…

We tested the idea that the directionality of a person's primary writing system has influences outside the domain of reading and writing, specifically influences on aesthetic preferences. The results of several previous studies suggest that people whose primary writing system goes from left to right prefer pictures of moving and static objects…

Discusses various theories of spelling development including their relevance to regularly spelled languages. Concludes that, as in other languages, children are integrating many different types of linguistic knowledge in their attempt to spell words correctly; dialect, orthography, and grammatical knowledge are all important. (SG)

Introduces the articles in the special issue as sharing a concern with the role of morphological skills in the learning of alphabetic orthographies. Discusses how the articles offer a cross-section of different perspectives, techniques and populations. Notes several pieces of evidence that morphological awareness, while related to phoneme…

Details a study on 10 French native speaking Williams syndrome (WS) individuals in which gender agreement and assignment were assessed through gender categorization and gender concord. Concludes WS people were not impaired in gender agreement which in the French language relies on syntactic rules or on the extraction of regularities, but…

Investigates the processes that deaf school children use for spelling. Compares results with those of hearing children. Finds that "regular" words were easier to learn than "opaque" words (words that could be spelled only on the basis of lexical orthographic information) for all groups. Discusses findings in light of current…

Considers an unexpected and remarkable preference for second language reading among some dyslexics that has been noted, presenting a challenge to accepted theory on dyslexia and the capacity for second language learning. Shows that two dyslexic groups differed significantly in the degree to which task performance, including reading efficiency, was…