Parsons, Christine E. and Lyddy, Fiona (2009) Early reading strategies in Irish and English: Evidence from error types. Reading in a Foreign Language, 21 (1). pp. 22-36. ISSN 1539-0578

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Abstract

For the majority of people in Ireland, Irish is a second language acquired primarily through the schooling system. This study examined the reading strategies children used in response to English and Irish words (presented in isolation), through an analysis of their oral reading errors. Children in their 4th year of schooling attending English-medium schools, immersion schools, and Irish-medium schools in Irish-speaking (Gaeltacht) regions participated. The English-medium school children scored significantly below the other 3 groups on the Irish task; the Gaeltacht school children scored below the other 3 groups on the English task. Overall, the children made significantly more real-word errors on the English task compared with the Irish task and significantly more nonword errors on the Irish task compared with the English task. These findings suggest that children learning to read in English and Irish may adopt different strategies when faced with unfamiliar words from each language.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This paper is based on PhD research conducted by the first author and supervised by the second author. The research was supported by funding from An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta & Gaelscolaíochta (COGG), the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and a John and Pat Hume Scholarship from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. The authors gratefully acknowledge this support and thank the school principals, parents, and children involved in this study. The views expressed are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of COGG.
Keywords:	reading; minority language; immersion education; Irish; orthography; Gaeltacht;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology Faculty of Social Sciences > Education
Item ID:	2507
Depositing User:	Fiona Lyddy
Date Deposited:	27 Apr 2011 15:01
Journal or Publication Title:	Reading in a Foreign Language
Publisher:	University of Hawaii Press
Refereed:	Yes
Funders:	An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta & Gaelscolaíochta (COGG), Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, John and Pat Hume Scholarship from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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