Abstract
Previous studies have shown that phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge,rapid automatized naming (RAN) and verbal memory span, are reliable correlates of learning to read in English. The extent to which these different predictors are of the same relative importance within different languages remains uncertain however.
We present the results from a 10-month longitudinal study starting just before or soon after the start of formal literacy instruction in 4 languages (English,Spanish, Slovak, Czech). Longitudinal path analyses show that phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and RAN (but not verbal memory span) measured at the onset of literacy instruction are reliable predictors, with similar relative importance, of later reading and spelling skills across the four languages.
These data support the suggestion thatphoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and RAN may tap cognitive processes that are important for learning to read in all alphabetic orthographies.