Orthographic knowledge as a predictor of reading and spelling in isiXhosa third graders

South African Journal of Childhood Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Orthographic knowledge as a predictor of reading and spelling in isiXhosa third graders
 
Creator Daries, Mikaela A. Bowles, Tracy N.
 
Subject Psycholinguistics, Literacy, Applied Linguistics , African langauge studies orthographic knowledge; reading fluency; spelling; phonological awareness; literacy; isiXhosa.
Description Background: Research acknowledges the importance of phonological processing and orthographic processing for reading and spelling in both consistently and inconsistently written languages. While the focus has tended to be on the role of phonological processing in languages with consistent orthographies, the role of orthographic processing, specifically orthographic knowledge has yet to be as extensively explored.Aim: To address this gap, this article explores the unique contributions of phonological awareness (PA) and orthographic knowledge for reading and spelling in the consistently written language of isiXhosa. In addition, we investigate the multi-dimensional character of orthographic knowledge by establishing whether letter-sound knowledge is a sub-component of orthographic knowledge, alongside word-specific and general orthographic knowledge.Setting: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted with 182 isiXhosa third graders.Methods: Participants completed word-specific and general orthographic knowledge tasks, which were specifically designed for the study, along with tasks of oral reading fluency, spelling accuracy, PA, rapid automatised naming and letter-sound knowledge.Results: Using confirmatory factor analyses along with regression analyses, the findings provide support for the multi-dimensional character of orthographic knowledge inclusive of word-specific orthographic knowledge, general orthographic knowledge and letter-sound knowledge. Further, it was revealed that for this sample of isiXhosa third graders, orthographic knowledge was more influential to reading and spelling performance over and above PA, providing evidence for the importance of orthographic skill for both reading and spelling in isiXhosa.Conclusion: The present study adds to a growing understanding of the multi-dimensional nature of orthographic knowledge and provides evidence for the importance of orthographic knowledge for reading and spelling in isiXhosa.Contribution: The findings support the need for phonics instruction that incorporates activities which build learners’ orthographic knowledge and other writing-related skills. Further, continuous exposure to books and reading will also strengthen learners’ orthographic knowledge.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor The Volkswagen Community Trust funded the project from which the data was used for this study. The National Research Fund along with the Guy Butler Research Grant funded the Master's thesis from which this study is derived (Daries, 2021).
Date 2024-10-31
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Quantitative
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajce.v14i1.1471
 
Source South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 14, No 1 (2024); 13 pages 2223-7682 2223-7674
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1471/3191 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1471/3192 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1471/3193 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1471/3194
 
Coverage South Africa — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2024 Mikaela A. Daries, Tracy N. Bowles https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT