Phonological and Morphological Skills In
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PHONOLOGICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL SKILLS IN EMERGING ENGLISH-HEBREW BILINGUALS by Inbal Gral-Azulay A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department Applied Psychology and Human Development. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto © Copyright by Inbal Gral-Azulay 2015 PHONOLOGICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL SKILLS IN EMERGING ENGLISH- HEBREW BILINGUALS Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Inbal Gral-Azulay Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development University of Toronto Abstract Metalinguistic abilities such as phonological and morphological awareness are important language proficiency components. Three interrelated studies, based on a longitudinal project, investigated the development of phonological and morphological skills in children with English as the home language and Hebrew as an emerging second language. Two cohorts were followed for two years: The first (N= 48) was followed from junior kindergarten (JK) to Grade 1, the second (N= 38) was followed from senior kindergarten (SK) to Grade 2. Order of acquisition of phonological and morphological skills was explored longitudinally and processes of transfer from the strong to the weak language were examined. Data were analyzed by using General Estimating Equations. Findings indicated improvement across grades on final phoneme and syllable deletion tasks and a decline between SK to Grade 1 on initial phoneme task in Hebrew. The decline may reflect a growing exposure to the Hebrew orthography and to its body + coda construct. Performance on final phoneme isolation and syllable deletion was predicted by English phonological awareness, but not initial phoneme isolation performance. In English and Hebrew, a gradual development from SK to Grade 2 was noted on different morphological components (inflections, derivations and compounds). Transfer of inflectional morphology from English to Hebrew was also noted. In Hebrew, children demonstrated the ability to produce nouns spontaneously followed by the ability to produce ii adjectives and verbs in a learning process that was more sequential than parallel, and that may reflect the method of instruction. The process of learning how to inflect words followed by the ability to derive words was demonstrated in both languages on parallel experimental measures and on the Hebrew narrative task. The children figured out the morphological combinations that were more frequent, consistent, or salient. This explains the relationship between English and Hebrew in terms of order of acquisition. The findings support the effect of cogintive universal processes and language specific characteristics on the developemt of English (L1) and Hebrew (L2). The findings bear theoretical implications and practical implications for school instruction methods, particularly among teachers who work with young bilingual children. iii Acknowledgements Like life, the course of doctoral studies has its ups and downs, and its unique junctures and challenges, accompanied always with development and continuous learning. I would like to express my most sincere thanks to my supervisor, Prof. Esther Geva, who opened for me the gate for an amazing cultural, intellectual and emotional experience in Canada. As a married mother with two daughters I learned from Esther to juggle and balance my various roles. I learned from you to face difficulties and figure out how to cope. Thanks you, Esther, for your support during my difficult moments, in which I did not have to tell you anything- you immediately knew, understood and helped. You expanded my horizons in the domains of language, history, culture, and geography. Thanks you for your advice and guidance not only throughout progress on my doctoral dissertation, but also during the process of making career decisions. I wish also to express my thanks to Prof. Eunice Jang, for her kindness, continuous support and invaluable insights. I was privileged to work with a talented scholar whose knowledge and dedication are a great inspiration. I learnt from you about statistical methods and other issues related to reliability and validity. Thanks you for sharing with me your wisdom and your insights. My gratitude also extends to Prof. Michal Perlman, Prof. Patricia Ganea and Prof. Becky Chen-Bumgardner. Your insightful feedback, throughout my Ph.D studies and the dissertation writing process have been extremely valuable. I will always appreciate your intelligence, warmth, and constructive feedback. Thank you to my external examiner, Prof. David Share, for devoting the time to thoughtfully challenge my thinking and provide me with valuable feedback and questions to ponder. iv What would I have done without Dr. Gabi Liberman, the statistical advisor, and Barbara Reid who helped me to edit and format my dissertation. Thanks you both for dedicating the time to improve my thesis and make it look more professional. Nancy Mayes, thanks you for your kind presence, for your constant smile, for being always ready to help, and for your friendship. A huge thanks to my professional lab mates who have been so understanding, supportive and helpful. Thanks for your company and your precious advice: Dr Marcus Benayon, Dr. Dana David, Dr. Adrian Pasquarella, Prof. Fataneh Farnia, Dr. Mahshid- Atzimi, Christine Fraser, Joyce Mak, Amily Safronsky, Linda Iwenofu, Tamara Kornacki, Sharon Pauker and Sun Baek. Thanks to the “Bialik school” team, to Dr. Amy platt, Asher Barnea, and especially the children, parents and teachers, without whom the study could not have been carried out. Last but not least, I want to thank my family - Hay, my husband, and my daughters. You have been my foundation from the onset. You kept me standing through the challenges and crises. You are the most important people in my life. Thanks to my parents – Loving and believing in me in the way that you do is why I have been able to get to this point. v Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………...ii v List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ xi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. xiv List of Appendices ..................................................................................................................... xvv Chapter One: Introduction........................................................................................................1 Chapter Two: Literature Review..............................................................................................7 Phonological and Morphological Awareness and their Role in Literacy Acquisition.............7 Phonological awareness..................................................................................................7 Morphological awareness...............................................................................................9 The link between phonological and morphological awareness. .................................... 11 Key Features of English Phonology and Morphology ............................................................ 12 Phonology and phonology-orthography relations. ........................................................ 12 Morphology. .................................................................................................................. 14 The link between phonology and morphology in English............................................. 15 Phonological awareness development and its role in literacy acquisition in English (L1). .......................................................................................................................... 16 Morphological awareness development and its role in literacy acquisition in English (L1). .......................................................................................................................... 17 Key Features of Hebrew Orthography and Morphology ........................................................ 23 Background…................................................................................................................ 23 The relation between phonology and orthography. ....................................................... 23 vi Morphology ................................................................................................................... 26 Phonological awareness development and its role in literacy acquisition in Hebrew (L1). .......................................................................................................................... 27 The development of morphological awareness and its role in Hebrew (L1). ............... 31 Meta-Linguistic Awareness in Bilingual Contexts and Cross-Linguistic Influences..............37 Theoretical frameworks of transfer………….………...,…………………………..….37 Cross-linguistic transfer of meta-linguistic knowledge. ................................................ 41 Meta-linguistic development and its role in literacy acquisition in English (L2)…... .. 44 Phonological and morphological development among English (L2) children: The role of L1 characteristics ..................................................................................................46 Phonological and morphological development among