ERIC Number: EJ1113501
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1088-8438
EISSN: N/A
Cognate Awareness in French Immersion Students: Contributions to Grade 2 Reading Comprehension
Hipfner-Boucher, Kathleen; Pasquarella, Adrian; Chen, Xi; Deacon, S. Hélène
Scientific Studies of Reading, v20 n5 p389-400 2016
Cognate awareness is the ability to recognize the cognate relationship between words in two etymologically related languages. The current study examined the development of cognate awareness and its contribution to French (second language) reading comprehension among Canadian French immersion children. Eighty-one students were tested at the end of Grade 1 and again at the end of Grade 2. Children were administered a cognate awareness task in French, in which they were asked to decide whether a French word had a cognate in English. Overall, performance on the cognate awareness task was significantly above chance at both time points, and it improved overtime. Thus, for the majority of the participants, cognate awareness was evident as early as first grade. Regressions revealed that cognate awareness measured in Grades 1 and 2 made a significant contribution to Grade 2 French reading comprehension, beyond multiple controls. The results of the study suggest that cognate awareness is a unique aspect of second-language reading comprehension in young bilingual children.
Descriptors: French, Immersion Programs, Grade 2, Elementary School Students, Correlation, Second Language Learning, Regression (Statistics), Bilingualism, English, Word Recognition, Parent Attitudes, Questionnaires, Vocabulary Skills, Receptive Language, Measures (Individuals), Second Language Instruction, Nonverbal Ability, Foreign Countries, Intelligence Tests, Verbal Ability, Vocabulary, Grade 1, Statistical Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Grade 2; Primary Education; Elementary Education; Early Childhood Education; Grade 1
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A