Orthographic, Phonological, and Morphological Skills and Children's Word Reading in Arabic: A Literature Review

• Published in: Reading research quarterly 2015-01, Vol.50 (1), p.83-109
• Main Authors: Al Ghanem, Reem, Kearns, Devin M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescence; Arabic language; as inquiry; Assessment; Childhood; Children; Curricula; Curriculum development; Decoding; Early adolescence; Elementary education; Elementary Secondary Education; Grade 1; Learning; Literature Reviews; Morphology; Morphology (Languages); Morphophonemics; National Curriculum; Orthographic Symbols; phonemic awareness; Phonetics; Phonics; Phonics, phonemic awareness, phonological awareness; Phonological Awareness; Phonology; Reading acquisition; Reading Comprehension; Reading Fluency; Reading Instruction; Reading Skills; Secondary school students; Semitic Languages; Special needs; Struggling learners; To inform instruction; To inform instruction, as inquiry; To learners in which of the following categories does your work apply?; Vocabulary; Word Study Skills
• ISSN: 0034-0553; 1936-2722
• DOI: 10.1002/rrq.84

Current Arabic reading instruction places strong emphasis on orthographic skills and little emphasis on phonological and morphological skills. Yet, the role of each skill in reading development in Arabic is not well understood. The purpose of this literature review was to examine the degree to which children learning to read in Arabic use orthographic, phonological, and morphological skills when they pronounce Arabic words. We conducted a comprehensive literature search and located 12 studies that examined the relation between these three skills and Arabic word reading for students in grades K–12. Sublexical orthographic skills were associated with Arabic word reading, especially in reading vowelized text. Phonological skills had the strongest relation with reading Arabic words of the three skills, across vowelized and unvowelized texts, and in grades 1–5. Morphological skills were examined in very few studies, but there was some evidence of association with word reading in skilled readers. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to the design of two national curricula for teaching beginning Arabic reading. Chinese 当今阿拉伯语阅读教学侧重于正字法的技能而较少强调语音和词法的技能。然而,每个技能在阿拉伯语阅读发展中的作用,却是不大清楚的。本文献综述旨在考查正在学习阅读阿拉伯语的儿童,在实行阿拉伯语单词发音时使用正字法、语音和词法等三种技能的程度。本文作者进行了全面的文献检索,找出12个相关研究,其中都有考查从幼儿园到十二年级学生,关于这三种技能与阿拉伯语单词阅读之间的关联。亚词汇正字法技能是与阿拉伯语单词阅读有关联,尤其是与加上元音符号的文本阅读有关联。在三种技能中,语音技能与阿拉伯语单词阅读技能有最强的关联,而且横跨了有和没有加上元音符号的文本,也横跨了一至五年级的学生。很少研究考查词法技能,但有些证据显示这个技能与熟练读者的单词阅读有关联。本文作者讨论这些研究结果,对两个阿拉伯语初级阅读教学的国家课程设计所带来的启示。 Spanish Las instrucciones de hoy día para leer el árabe ponen gran énfasis en las destrezas ortográficas y poca en las destrezas fonológicas y morfológicas. Sin embargo, el papel de cada destreza en el desarrollo de la lectura del árabe no es bien entendido. El propósito de este análisis de la literatura fue el de examinar el grado al que los niños aprendiendo árabe usan las destrezas ortográficas, fonológicas y morfológicas al pronunciar palabras árabes. Hicimos una búsqueda exhaustiva de la literatura y encontramos 12 estudios que examinaban la relación entre estas tres destrezas y la lectura de palabras árabes en estudiantes en los grados K‐12. Las destrezas ortográficas sub léxicas se asociaron con la lectura de palabras árabes, especialmente al leer textos a los cuales se les había añadido vocales. De las tres destrezas, la fonológica tuvo la mayor relación con la lectura de palabras árabes, ya tuviera el texto vocales o no, en los grados del primero al quinto. Las des