Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) 2018 Reading across Different Orthographies: Urdu, Arabic, Hindi and English Amna Mirza
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Educational Methods Commons, and the Language and Literacy Education Commons Recommended Citation Mirza, Amna, "Reading across Different Orthographies: Urdu, Arabic, Hindi and English" (2018). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 2059. https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2059 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Running Head: READING ACROSS DIFFERENT ORTHOGRAPHIES Reading across Different Orthographies: Urdu, Arabic, Hindi and English By Amna Mirza, M.A. Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Psychology In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology Wilfrid Laurier University June 18th, 2018 © Amna Mirza READING ACROSS DIFFERENT ORTHOGRAPHIES ii Abstract Research on relationships across literacy skills for multiple languages suggests the need for a complex framework that includes linguistic typology as well as cognitive and cultural variables (Schwartz, Geva, Share, & Leikin, 2007). Literature shows that bilinguals activate both languages they know for all linguistic tasks regardless of which language is being used at the time (Kroll & Bialystok, 2013). In that case, learning a third or any additional language is qualitatively different than second language (L2) acquisition. Findings for readers of Roman scripts demonstrate that L1 reading and L2 proficiency influences L2 reading (Cummins, 1979).