Efficacy of Two School-Based Interventions on Notational Ability of Bilingual Preschoolers: A Group-Randomized Trial Study

Relationship between lexical, reading and spelling skills in bilingual language minority children and their monolingual peers

This study was conducted on a population of primary school children including bilingual language minority (BLM) children with L2-Italian and a variety of languages as L1 (e.g., Chinese, Albanian, Latin), and Italian-speaking monolingual children. The variety of languages ecologically reflects the nowadays composition of classes in the Italian school system. The aims were to investigate in both linguistic groups: (1) the developmental patterns of lexical, reading and spelling skills; (2) the pattern of predictive relations between lexical, reading and spelling skills. 159 primary school children from Grade 2 to Grade 5 participated in the study: BLM (n = 80) and monolingual (n = 79) children aged between 7 and 11 years. Each participant completed a vocabulary task (lexical skills), a text reading task (reading accuracy and reading speed) and a text dictation task (orthographic errors). ANOVA statistics showed the comparison of patterns between monolingual and BLM children in lexical, reading, and writing skills. Results show lower performances in lexical, reading and spelling skills in BLM children learning Italian as a second language compared to monolingual peers. Second, partial correlations performed separately for monolinguals and BLM with lexical ability as a control variable, illustrated that all variables correlated with each other in both groups. This result provides the option of performing hierarchical regressions. Finally, hierarchical regression analyses showed that the pattern of predictive relations between lexical, reading and spelling skills is the same across language groups, with the key role of orthographic accuracy as the pivotal process around which reading and lexical skills are built.

The role of preschoolers' home literacy environment and emergent literacy skills on later reading and writing skills in primary school: A mediational model

The importance of the quality of home literacy environment and practices (HLE&P) in the earliest years on children's reading and writing development is recognized in the literature. However, whether and to what extent this relationship between preschoolers' HLE&P on their later reading and writing skills in primary school is mediated by emergent literacy competence remains to be clarified. It may be that preschool constitutes a significant opportunity for children to develop notational awareness and phonological awareness which are emergent literacy skills that are fundamental for later reading and writing skills. Children who experience literacy-poor HLE&P with fewer opportunities to practice more complex language skills and diverse vocabulary might develop adequate reading and writing skills when their emergent literacy skills in preschool are high (notational and phonological awareness). This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the mediational role of preschoolers' emergent literacy skills in preschool (notational and phonological awareness) in the relationship between HLE&P and reading and writing skills shown by the same children in primary school using a large-scale dataset. A total of 115 children (mean-age at last year of preschool = 4.88 ± 0.36) took part in the research. In preschool, children performed emergent literacy tasks and their parents completed a home literacy questionnaire. Later, in primary school, children completed standardized assessments of spelling (orthographic accuracy and fluency in a dictation task) and reading decoding (accuracy and speed in a text reading task) skills. The results of mediational analyses showed that notational awareness totally mediates the relationship between HLE&P and reading speed (𝛽= - 0.17, p < 0.05) and writing accuracy (𝛽=0.10, p < 0.05), but not for reading accuracy in primary school. The mediational model with phonological awareness as mediator was not significant. The results are discussed in the light of the effect of preschool in contributing to filling children's home literacy gaps and disadvantages. In preschool, emergent literacy programs are essential to counterbalance the needs of preschoolers to develop adequate reading and writing skills when the family cannot provide enriched HLE&P from the early years of life.

Contribution of oral narrative textual competence and spelling skills to written narrative textual competence in bilingual language-minority children and monolingual peers

This study investigates the developmental pattern and relationships between oral narrative textual skills, spelling, and written narrative textual skills in monolingual and bilingual language-minority (BLM) children, L1-Chinese and L2-Italian. The aims were to investigate in monolingual and BLM children: (1) the developmental patterns of oral and writing skills across primary school years; (2) the pattern of relationships (direct and mediated) between oral narrative textual competence, spelling skills, and written narrative textual competence with age and socio-economic status (SES) taken under control. In total, 141 primary school children from grades 2 to 5 in Central Italy (44% BLM, 56% monolinguals) aged between 7 and 11 years (M-age = 8.59, SD = 1.13; 41% girls, 59% boys) obtained scores for oral and written narrative textual competence, spelling accuracy in dictation, and written texts. One-way ANOVA and ANOVA with robust method (Welch test) analyses and Bonferroni’s correction showed that BLM children had poorer spelling skills in dictation and written narrative textual competence (i.e., text structure) than their monolingual peers. After preliminary correlation analysis, the results of hierarchical regression showed that the relationship between oral and written narrative textual competence is completely mediated by spelling accuracy in BLM children. These results suggest that adequate performance in written narrative textual competence depends on adequate spelling accuracy in writing stories. The Sobel test verified the power of this mediation. In monolinguals, the strongest predictor of written narrative textual competence is oral narrative textual competence. This relation is stronger in older children whose spelling skills are automatized. The identified pattern of relationships shows a complex network of oral and written processes. The scarce spelling skills characterizing BLM children may explain why spelling skills determine a low written narrative textual level. Scarce spelling skills absorb cognitive resources, hindering high-level cognitive processes that regulate narrative production. In monolinguals, the medium of writing does not impact narrative textual competence. Children’s oral narrative textual competence easily transfers into their written narrative productions. These findings have implications for the assessment and instruction of literacy skills in young BLM children and their monolingual peers.