Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies

TLDR

Prior research indicates that basic decoding skills develop less effectively in English compared to many other European orthographies. The study hypothesizes that deeper orthographies require a dual logographic‑alphabetic foundation that takes more than twice as long to establish as the single foundation needed for shallow orthographies. To test this, the authors assessed letter knowledge, familiar word reading, and simple nonword reading in English and 12 other orthographies during the early foundation phase. Results show that most European children achieve accurate, fluent foundation‑level reading by the end of the first school year, except in French, Portuguese, Danish, and especially English, where slower development—more than twice the rate of shallow orthographies—is linked to greater syllabic complexity and orthographic depth rather than age or letter knowledge.

Abstract

Several previous studies have suggested that basic decoding skills may develop less effectively in English than in some other European orthographies. The origins of this effect in the early (foundation) phase of reading acquisition are investigated through assessments of letter knowledge, familiar word reading, and simple nonword reading in English and 12 other orthographies. The results confirm that children from a majority of European countries become accurate and fluent in foundation level reading before the end of the first school year. There are some exceptions, notably in French, Portuguese, Danish, and, particularly, in English. The effects appear not to be attributable to differences in age of starting or letter knowledge. It is argued that fundamental linguistic differences in syllabic complexity and orthographic depth are responsible. Syllabic complexity selectively affects decoding, whereas orthographic depth affects both word reading and nonword reading. The rate of development in English is more than twice as slow as in the shallow orthographies. It is hypothesized that the deeper orthographies induce the implementation of a dual (logographic + alphabetic) foundation which takes more than twice as long to establish as the single foundation required for the learning of a shallow orthography.