Longitudinal data on the relations of morphological and phonological training to reading acquisition in first grade: The case of Arabic language

The purpose of this study was to examine the development of morphological and phonological awareness and their impact on later reading skills. Two training programs (morphological and phonological awareness) were conducted in kindergarten and were compared to no-intervention control group. Phonological and morphological tests and other general abilities were measured for 90 children at kindergarten as pre and post intervention tests. Tests in reading and spelling were carried out at the middle of grade 1. Results showed that the morphological and the phonological intervention programs enhanced both phonological and morphological awareness, in comparison to the control group, with a small advantage for the morphological group. In grade 1, no significant differences were found between the intervention groups and the control group in reading and spelling measures. Altogether the results of the current study suggest that the intervention programs were less effective than expected in the first graders compared to results of Carlisle (1995) and Lyster (2002), but support former findings found by Ibrahim et al. (2007). This result may relate in part to the additional visual complexity of Arabic orthography. The psycholinguistic implications of these findings including a gender effect are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)