Linguistic processes in reading and spelling: The case of alphabetic writing systems (English, French, German and Spanish)
Résumé
The aim of the present chapter is to provide a survey of the development of word reading and spelling in alphabetic writing systems. We assume that the processes that beginning readers rely on partially depend on the specific characteristics of each language, and not only on general principles common to all languages. In particular the weight of the indirect phonological route depends on the degree to which the different writing systems represent the spoken language which they encode. To illustrate this claim, we will review studies carried out with English-, French-, German- and Spanish-speaking children (referred to from here on as English, French, German and Spanish children). After a presentation of the main linguistic characerisitics of these four languages, we shall review the psycholinguistic literature. Our main arguments will be that 1. At the beginning of reading acquisition, the orthographic lexicon is not yet operating; therefore, children rely on their speech knowledge to establish relations between spoken and written language. 2. These relations are easier to establish when 'spelling-to-sound' correspondences are transparent. 3. The units of 'spelling-to-sound' correspondences depend on the linguistic peculiarities of each specific language. 4. The constitution of the orthographic lexicon is a consequence of the consolidation of the associations between 'spelling-to-sound' correspondences.