The Role of Morphosyntactic Awareness in Conventional Lexical Segmentation

Starting with the alphabetic stage of writing acquisition, the learner struggles with issues related to spelling, including the segmentation of writing in graphic words. This study examined the conventional segmentation of words and its relation to morphosyntactic awareness in a sample of students in the 4th and 5th years of elementary education in public schools. Results reveal a discrepancy between the oral identification of words and performance in the segmentation of writing, with three criteria being used by students to define “word”: (1st) full meaning; (2nd) sequence of letters, not only one or two; (3rd) frequency of word use. Statistical analyses revealed significant positive correlations between conventional segmentation and morphosyntactic awareness. It is inferred that morphosyntactic skills support the establishment of the conventional notion of the word, and it is suggested that teachers promote the development of these skills, in order to ensure a greater command of the written language

Transfert de la conscience morphologique de l’arabe langue première au français langue seconde au cours des trois premières années d’apprentissage

SJR 2019 Q3Cette étude examine le transfert de la conscience morphologique (CM) de l’arabe L1 vers la CM et la lecture de mots en français L2 (FL2) en 1e, 2e et 3e années d’apprentissage du FL2 (n=106). Les niveaux de lecture et de CM flexionnelle et dérivationnelle sont mesurés dans les deux langues par des tests de lecture de mots en une minute et des épreuves de détection d’intrus (flexionnel et dérivationnel). Les analyses de régression hiérarchiques montrent que la contribution de la CM en L1 à la CM en L2 n’apparaît qu’en 2e année et sa contribution à la lecture en FL2 qu’en 3e année. Le transfert morphologique, notamment dérivationnel, entre des langues orthographiquement et morphologiquement éloignées serait relativement limité, une fois atteint un niveau minimal en FL2 et avant l’intervention de compétences spécifiques au français. There is a great deal of evidence to support the role of morphological awareness in reading development. However, towards second language acquisition, transfer of morphological awareness from first to second language (L1 to L2) is still discussed. The underlying question concerns the extent to which morphological awareness is a specific or universal process, and its dependence of linguistic features. The aim of this study is to examine cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness from Arabic L1 to French L2 (morphological awareness and word reading) at different level of learning French L2 (FL2). 106 Tunisian children, whose first language is Arabic, in 1st (n=29; mean age; 8; 10 years), 2nd (n=33; mean age; 9; 9 years) or 3rd year (n=44; mean age; 10; 10 years) of learning FL2 participated to this study. Their morphological awareness (inflectional or derivational oddity detection tasks) and their performance in word reading (one minute test) were assessed in standard Arabic and French, as well as their vocabulary knowledge in French. A series of fixed-order hierarchical regression analysis was performed on derivational awareness performances, inflectional awareness performances and word reading performances in FL2, controlling for effects of other important variables (e.g. French vocabulary, French morphological awareness with word reading scores as outcome variable and French inflectional or derivational awareness with French inflectional or derivational awareness scores as outcome variable respectively, Arabic word reading, etc.). Results show significant contributions of L1 morpho-derivational awareness on FL2 morpho-derivational awareness in 2nd year (12%), and of L1 morphological awareness on reading words FL2 in 3rd year (5%). These results confirm the cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness, particularly derivational, from L1 to L2 among alphabetic — but orthographically and morphologically distances — languages. They also suggest that such a transfer could be relatively limited. It could appear during learning process after achieving a threshold in FL2 and before specific L2 skills take place. Thus, beyond the morphological opacity of Arabic (nonlinear morphology) and linguistic distance between Arabic and French, the morphological transfer could appear on rich and important morphological dimension in L1 and suggest dealing with the nature of cross-linguistic abilities in depth

L'apprentissage de la langue écrite : approche cognitive

Comment les enfants apprennent-ils à lire et à écrire ? D’où proviennent les difficultés observées ? Comment les prévenir ou les enrayer ? Ces questions passionnantes et d’actualité sur le plan de la politique nationale et européenne se sont rapidement muées en sujet de polémiques. Leur mise en avant médiatique a pu laisser penser qu’il existait des ruptures au sein de la communauté scientifique. Un colloque intitulé « Approche cognitive de l’apprentissage de la langue écrite » (Rennes, octobre 2006) avait pourtant permis de montrer une cohésion et une collaboration fécondes entre les nombreux chercheurs français et étrangers qui y participaient. Suite à ce constat, nous souhaitions présenter les avancées récentes de la communauté scientifique internationale dans le domaine de l’apprentissage des procédures de lecture (de l’identification des mots à la compréhension des textes écrits) et de productions des mots écrits (du geste graphique au code orthographique). À travers cette collaboration, le lecteur découvrira que ces avancées s’articulent autour de deux grands axes de recherche qui organisent la structure de l’ouvrage : d’une part, la nature des unités linguistiques prises en compte à l’écrit et d’autre part, les traitements impliqués dans l’installation des procédures de lecture-écriture

O papel da consciência morfossintática na aquisição e no aperfeiçoamento da leitura e da escrita

Nos últimos decênios, diversos estudos verificaram que as habilidades metalinguísticas têm papel essencial na aquisição da linguagem escrita e revelam-se associadas à maior ou menor eficácia dessa aquisição. Entretanto, enquanto a relação entre metafonologia e aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita está bem documentada, estudos sobre a relação entre a consciência morfossintática e aprendizagem da escrita são ainda pouco numerosos. Considera-se que a partir do estágio alfabético de aquisição da escrita, o aprendiz precisa enfrentar diferentes questões relativas tanto a leitura (decodificação e compreensão) como a escrita (ortografia), diante das quais se amplia a importância da consciência morfossintática, dado que mesmo nos sistemas de escrita alfabéticos não se verifica uma correspondência biunívoca e recíproca entre letra e som. Neste artigo é apresentada uma série de estudos conduzidos em vários idiomas, com destaque para os estudos conduzidos no português brasileiro, que tiveram como objetivo verificar a relação entre a consciência morfossintática e a aquisição e o aperfeiçoamento da linguagem escrita