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Orthographic knowledge is predicted to be central in the process of children's reading development. We examined both the temporal order between orthographic knowledge and each of word reading and word spelling—effectively, which predicts which by including autoregressive controls— and cross-linguistic transfer between English and French for our emerging bilingual participants. Seven-three children (36 males) were followed from Grades 1 to 3 in a French immersion program in which instruction was entirely in French. We conducted cross-lagged panel models of orthographic knowledge, word reading, and spelling that included controls of phonological awareness, non-verbal ability. In terms of temporal order, word reading (at grade 1) and word spelling (at grade 2) predicted gains in each of English and French orthographic knowledge. In contrast, early orthographic knowledge did not predict gains in word reading or word spelling in either language. In terms of transfer, from their earliest point of measurement, English word reading and spelling consistently predicted later French orthographic knowledge; French word reading and spelling contributed to English orthographic knowledge only from Grade 2. These findings illustrate a dynamic picture of the relations between orthographic knowledge and word reading and spelling both within and across languages, informing current models of each reading with both monolinguals and bilinguals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models of reading development point to a role for knowledge about the orthography quite late in children's reading development; here we explore the contributions of early orthographic knowledge – of the features of print – to word reading development between kindergarten and Grade 1. We did so in a longitudinal study of 93 emergent bilingual children whose formal instruction was in French, a different language than they spoke at home, followed from senior kindergarten to Grade 1. Linear regression analyses showed that early print knowledge in both English and French significantly predicted French word reading in Grade 1; no such relations emerged to English word reading. Analyses included control measures of parental education and English vocabulary, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and autoregressive controls of earlier word reading. These results suggest that print knowledge can be used to predict progress in second language word reading in emergent bilingual children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The self-teaching hypothesis (Share [1995]. Phonological recoding and self-teaching: Sine qua non of reading acquisition. Cognition, 55, 151–218) proposes that readers acquire word-specific orthographic representations during independent reading. We evaluate the generalisability of this theory to second language (L2) reading. In this context, we also investigate the influence of first language (L1) orthographic features on L2 orthographic learning. Participants were 52 English L1 children in grades 4 and 6 of a French immersion programme. In a self-teaching paradigm, we examined the ability to learn pseudowords in the children's L2. Children read texts that contained French pseudowords that included orthographic patterns that are either shared between English and French (e.g., ) or unique to French (e.g., ). In our novel extension, we demonstrate that children learned the target pseudowords in the L2. Interestingly, there was no difference in learning of novel words with shared and unique orthographic patterns. We interpret these findings within a model of self-teaching as applied to L2 reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the within‐ and cross‐language relations between orthographic processing and spelling for children learning to read in languages that share the same Roman script: namely, English and French. We examined these relations in a group of 152 children attending grade 1 in a French immersion program. Measures of English and French lexical orthographic processing (e.g., dream‐dreem; jaune‐jeaune) as well as English and French spelling were administered. Control measures included nonverbal ability, English phonological awareness, as well as rapid automatised naming, vocabulary, and word reading in English and French. We found a within‐language relation between orthographic processing and spelling in each of English and French. Cross‐language transfer from French orthographic processing to English spelling was also observed; there were no relations in the other direction. Our results suggest that orthographic processing is important for spelling development among bilingual children learning English and French. What is already known about this topic Orthographic processing plays an important role in monolingual children's word reading and spelling Orthographic processing in one language is significantly related to word reading in the other language in bilingual children who are acquiring languages that share the same script The extent to which orthographic processing is related to spelling is not clear in bilingual children What this paper adds Orthographic processing contributes to spelling within English and French in a novel group of bilingual children in French immersion Orthographic processing in French transfers to spelling in English The direction of cross‐language transfer of orthographic processing to spelling occurs from the more consistent orthography to the less consistent one Implications for theory, policy, or practice Cross‐language transfer of orthographic processing may be due to shared orthographic structures and common underlying processes involved in extracting orthographic information in English and French The educational context in which second language is acquired may play an important role in spelling development in both English and French French immersion educators should highlight similarities in orthographic conventions in English and French during literacy instruction to facilitate spelling development [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]