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Phonological awareness in illterates: Observations from Serbo-Croatian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Katerina Lukatela*
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut, Haskins Laboratory
Claudia Carello
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut, Haskins Laboratory
Donald Shankweiler
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut, Haskins Laboratory
Isabelle Y. Liberman
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut, Haskins Laboratory
*
Katerina Lukatela, Haskins Labortories, 270 Grown Street, New Haven, CT 06511-6695

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Adult illiterate and semiliterate speakers of Serbo-Croatian were assessed on reading, writing, phonological, and control tasks. Most subjects had acquired measurable literacy skills despite a documented lack of formal instruction. The individual differences in these skills were highly specific. They were related to measures of phoneme segmentation and alphabet knowledge, but only weakly related to general cognitive abilities. Three groups, categorized with respect to the subjects' ability to identify the letters of their Cyrillic alphabet, differed on phoneme deletion and phoneme-counting tasks, but not on syllable-counting, picture vocabulary, or tone-counting tasks. Alphabet knowledge was more tightly coupled with phoneme awareness than has been found in speakers of English. Cross-language similarities and differences are discussed, highlighting the role that phonological transparency of the orthography may play in the acquisition of literacy.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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