TY - JOUR

T1 - Learning to read bilingually modulates the manifestations of dyslexia in adults

AU - Lallier, Marie

AU - Thierry, Guillaume

AU - Barr, Polly

AU - Carreiras, M.

AU - Tainturier, Marie-Josephe

N1 - 2018 Taylor & Francis. This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.

PY - 2018/6

Y1 - 2018/6

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

M3 - Article

VL - 22

SP - 335

EP - 349

JO - Scientific Studies of Reading

JF - Scientific Studies of Reading

SN - 1088-8438

IS - 4

ER -