Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine French language learners' (FLL) and English language learners' (ELL) knowledge of orthographic patterns in English and French, the relationship of orthographic knowledge to word reading, and the strategies participants used to distinguish the patterns. I hypothesized that FLL would score higher than ELL on a measure of orthographic knowledge of French and English (combined), but that orthographic knowledge would predict word reading in both groups. The analysis of strategy use was exploratory, given the lack of research in this area.
Forty-eight first and second graders (31 FLL, 17 ELL) were asked to (a) complete measures of word reading; (b) classify pseudowords as French or English to assess orthographic pattern knowledge; and (c) identify their strategies for classifying pseudowords. Children's responses were then coded as phonological, orthographic, or no strategy. Their use of analogies was also examined.
As expected, the FLL group scored significantly higher than the ELL group on the task of orthographic knowledge, t(46) 2.23, p < .03. Orthographic processing predicted word reading in both languages for FLL, and in English for ELL. For strategy types (n = 48), both groups used orthographic strategies more frequently than phonological strategies, but FLL used significantly fewer phonological strategies than ELL. The results suggest that orthographic processing contributes to English and French word reading. The study also provides insight into the types of strategies L2 children use to discriminate languages with a shared alphabet.