Murphy, V. A. , Macaro, E. , Alba, S. & Cipolla, C.
Department of Education, University of Oxford
The focus of this project was to identify the extent to which L2 learning impacted upon L1 reading and spelling skills. This research adopted a pre-test - intervention -- post-test design comparing 3 groups of 8-year-old children who were matched on non-verbal IQ and who all speak English as a first language. The three groups comprised children who: 1) received L2 Italian instruction 2) who received L2 French instruction and 3) who received no L2 instruction across a 15 week instructional intervention in an overall sample of 152 children. At pre-test all children were tested on baseline measures of English reading and spelling and phonological awareness, as well as a measure of nonverbal IQ for matching purposes. At post-test the children were re-tested on the measures used at pre-test and the L2 groups were also given discrete tests of Italian and French vocabulary and phrases respectively. The results indicated that on some measures the group receiving L2 Italian outperformed the other groups suggesting that L2 instruction with a transparent Grapheme-Phoneme-Correspondence system can have a more facilitative effect on L1 reading and spelling. These results are discussed within the context of models of developing literacy and L2 development.