Learning to read bilingually modulates the manifestations of dyslexia in adults
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Electronic versions
Documents
- 2018 Learning to read bilingually
Accepted author manuscript, 441 KB, PDF document
Licence: Other
According to the 'Grain Size Accommodation' hypothesis (Lallier and Carreiras, 2017), learning to read in two languages differing in orthographic consistency leads to a cross-linguistic modulation of reading and spelling processes. Here, we test the prediction that bilingualism may influence the manifestations of dyslexia. We compared the deficits of English monolingual and early Welsh-English bilingual dyslexic adults on reading and spelling irregular English words and English-like pseudo-words. As predicted, monolinguals were relatively more impaired in reading pseudo-words than irregular words while the opposite was true for bilinguals. Moreover, monolinguals showed stronger sublexical processing deficits than bilinguals, and were poorer spellers overall. This study shows that early bilingual reading experience has long-lasting effects on the manifestations of dyslexia in adulthood. It demonstrates that learning to read in a consistent language like Welsh in addition to English gives bilingual dyslexic adults an advantage in English literacy tasks strongly relying on phonological processing.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 335-349 |
Journal | Scientific Studies of Reading |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 4 |
Early online date | 28 Mar 2018 |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2018 |
Research outputs (1)
- Published
A theory of bilingual spelling in alphabetic systems
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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