Word-reading and word-spelling styles of french beginners : Do all children learn to read and to spell in the same way?

Elsa Eme (1) , Caroline Golder (1)

1 CeRCA [Poitiers] - Centre de recherches sur la cognition et l'apprentissage [UMR 7295]

This article explores the styles of word reading and word spelling used by beginning readers in the French language. The aim of the study was to find out whether “sub-lexical” and “lexical” styles of reliance, which has been observed in children learning to read and spell in English, exists in French, a language with a more transparent orthography. A sample of 159 subjects were assessed on their reading and spelling of regular words, irregular words and nonwords. Cluster analyses on reading/spelling performances led us to identify various profiles, among which sub-lexical and lexical styles could be discerned. These profiles were then compared across a set of linguistic tasks in order to look for factors that might be related to individual differences in reading/spelling styles. Overall, our findings suggest that quantitative level differences explain most individual variation in literacy. These results are discussed in relation to developmental models of reading and spelling in different orthographic systems.

Mots clés: reading development; spelling; individual differences; French orthography; lexical and sub-lexical strategies

Domaines: Psychologie

Elsa Eme, Caroline Golder. Word-reading and word-spelling styles of french beginners : Do all children learn to read and to spell in the same way?. Reading and Writing, 2005, 18, pp.157-188. ⟨10.1007/s11145-004-6409-8⟩. ⟨hal-00086735⟩