Syntactic awareness and reading comprehension in English-French bilinguals

This presentation reports two studies exploring the role of d syntactic awareness in reading comprehension among children enrolled in French immersion programs. Syntactic awareness is the ability to reflect on and manipulate the structure of sentences. Involving English-French bilinguals in grade 1, Study 1 found that French syntactic awareness did not contribute directly to French reading comprehension, though its effect was mediated through French word reading and French vocabulary. English syntactic awareness, on the other hand, contributed directly to French reading comprehension. Study 2 examined the relationship between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension in grade 3 French immersion children. Within this older sample, we found that French syntactic awareness directly contributed to French reading comprehension. Moreover, French syntactic awareness transferred to English and supported English reading comprehension. Taken together, these two studies suggest that within- and cross-language contributions of syntactic awareness to reading comprehension changes as children get older and increase their proficiency in French. 

Thursday, May 25, 2023

9:40 PDT
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12:40 EDT
13:40 ADT
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