Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming as Longitudinal Predictors of Reading in Five Alphabetic Orthographies with Varying Degrees of Consistency

TLDR

Phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming are established early predictors of reading, but it remains unclear whether their predictive patterns are universal or language‑specific. The study followed 1,120 children in Grades 1 and 2 across five alphabetic orthographies—English, French, German, Dutch, and Greek—varying in orthographic complexity to examine these patterns longitudinally. Path analyses showed that a universal model could not be confirmed; RAN consistently predicted reading fluency in all orthographies, while the PA–reading relationship was complex and largely interactive, depending on task characteristics, developmental status, and orthographic complexity.

Abstract

Although phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) are confirmed as early predictors of reading in a large number of orthographies, it is as yet unclear whether the predictive patterns are universal or language specific. This was examined in a longitudinal study across Grades 1 and 2 with 1,120 children acquiring one of five alphabetic orthographies with different degrees of orthographic complexity (English, French, German, Dutch, and Greek). Path analyses revealed that a universal model could not be confirmed. When we specified the best-fitting model separately for each language, RAN was a consistent predictor of reading fluency in all orthographies, whereas the association between PA and reading was complex and mostly interactive. We conclude that RAN taps into a language-universal cognitive mechanism that is involved in reading alphabetic orthographies (independent of complexity), whereas the PA–reading relationship depends on many factors like task characteristics, developmental status, and orthographic complexity.