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Differing sequences of metaphonological development in French and English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2006

LYNNE G. DUNCAN ,
PASCALE COLÉ ,
PHILIP H. K. SEYMOUR  and
ANNIE MAGNAN
LYNNE G. DUNCAN
Affiliation:
University of Dundee, United Kingdom
PASCALE COLÉ
Affiliation:
Université de Savoie, Laboratoire de Psychologie et de Neurocognition, UMR 5105, CNRS, France
PHILIP H. K. SEYMOUR
Affiliation:
University of Dundee, United Kingdom
ANNIE MAGNAN
Affiliation:
Université Lumière, Lyon 2, Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs/Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage (DDL), UMR 5596, CNRS, France
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Abstract

Phonological awareness is thought to become increasingly analytic during early childhood. This study examines whether the proposed developmental sequence (syllable→onset-rime→phoneme) varies according to the characteristics of a child's native language. Experiment 1 compares the phonological segmentation skills of English speakers aged 4;11 (N=10), 5;3 (N=21), and 6;5 (N=23) and French speakers aged 5;6 (N=35), and 6;8 (N=34). Experiment 2 assesses performance in the common unit task using English speakers aged 4;7 (N=22), 5;7 (N=23), and 6;11 (N=22), and French speakers aged 4;7 (N=20), 5;6 (N=35), and 6;7 (N=33). The experiments reveal crosslinguistic differences in the processing of syllables prior to school entry with French speakers exhibiting a greater consistency in manipulating syllables. Phoneme awareness emerges in both languages once reading instruction is introduced and rime awareness appears to follow rather than precede this event. Thus, the emergence of phonological awareness did not show a universal pattern but rather was subject to the influence of both native language and literacy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , May 2006 , pp. 369 - 399
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This research was supported in the UK by a project grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (R000222321). The authors would like to express their gratitude to the children and schools who participated in the study, and to Elena Lieven and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.