Abstract
The dual foundation model proposes that letter-sound knowledge (LK) and phoneme awareness (PA) uniquely and interactively predict early reading skills (Byrne, 1998). We explore whether these relationships are moderated by age and the phonological structure of the input language.
This paper brings together data from four studies conducted in the UK, Czech Republic and Australia, representing 980 children. The samples include groups of English-speaking 4-5 and 7-8 year olds (both emergent readers due to the older group starting school later), and Czech and English-speaking 4-5 year olds (at the early stages of reading acquisition).
The paper uses, for the first time, item-level data (whether a child knows the letter-sound corresponding to the phoneme they are asked to identify/manipulate) to test the pathways depicted in the dual-foundation model (e.g. the direct link between phoneme awareness and reading is measured via the proportion of PA+LK-). The validity of this approach is tested through comparison with traditional path analyses, where PA and LK are entered as independent variables.
Each study is analysed separately using both approaches, and beta weights compared to see how different factors may moderate the relationship between early letter knowledge, phoneme awareness, and later word reading. All data has been collected, with analyses forthcoming.
We predict that both age and language will be moderating variables with (among other differences) a) older beginning readers showing a stronger direct link from PA to reading than younger children due to better phonological awareness at school entry, and b) Czech children showing a stronger direct route from PA to reading than English-speaking children as a result of early development of more detailed phonological representations (due to a complex syllable-onset structure). This paper will lead to new conclusions about the nature of the dual-foundation model in different populations.