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Early literacy in Arabic: An intervention study among Israeli Palestinian kindergartners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

IRIS LEVIN ,
ELINOR SAIEGH-HADDAD ,
NAREMAN HENDE  and
MARGALIT ZIV
IRIS LEVIN*
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
ELINOR SAIEGH-HADDAD
Affiliation:
Bar-Ilan University
NAREMAN HENDE
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
MARGALIT ZIV
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University and Alqasemi Academic College of Education
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Iris Levin, School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Arabic Literacy acquisition was studied among Israeli Palestinian low socioeconomic status kindergartners within the framework of an intervention study, implemented by teachers. On pretest, letter naming, alphabetic awareness, and phonological awareness were very low. Whereas the comparison group hardly progressed throughout the year, the intervention group progressed substantially on all three skills. The diglossic nature of the Arabic letter name system was manifested in children's transition from a mixture of two systems to preference for standard over colloquial names following the intervention. As in other alphabets, visual similarity and adjacency increased letter confusability. The unique features of Arabic literacy are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , July 2008 , pp. 413 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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