Journal Article

The unique role of lexical accessibility in predicting kindergarten emergent literacy

Verhoeven, Ludo, Irausquin, Rosemarie, Segers, Eliane, van Leeuwe, Jan

2016

Overview

The goal of this longitudinal study was to examine how lexical quality predicts the emergence of literacy abilities in 169 Dutch kindergarten children before formal reading instruction has started. At the beginning of the school year, a battery of precursor measures associated with lexical quality was related to the emergence of letter knowledge and word decoding. Confirmatory factor analysis evidenced five domains related to lexical quality, i.e., vocabulary, phonological coding, phonological awareness, lexical retrieval and phonological working memory. Structural equation modeling showed that the development of letter knowledge during the year could be predicted from children’s phonological awareness and lexical retrieval, and the emergence of word decoding from their phonological awareness and letter knowledge. It is concluded that it is primarily the accessibility of phonological representations in the mental lexicon that predicts the emergence of literacy in kindergarten.

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Access / Alphabets / Children / Confirmatory factor analysis / Consciousness / Decoding / Decoding (Reading) / Dutch language / Early literacy / Education / Emergent Literacy / Factor Analysis / Foreign Countries / Kindergarten / Kindergarten students / Knowledge / Knowledge Level / Language and Literature / Letters (Correspondence) / Lexical access / Linguistics / Literacy / Longitudinal Studies / Mental lexicon / Netherlands / Neurology / Phonetics / Phonological Awareness / Phonological memory / Phonological processing / Phonology / Predictor Variables / Psycholinguistics / Reading acquisition / Retrieval / Short term memory / Social Sciences / Structural equation modeling / Structural Equation Models / Studies / Teaching / Vocabulary