Strategies of Spelling and Reading of Young Children Learning German Orthography

Abstract

Recent research in the field of written language acquisition has led to the realization that children develop strategies to deal with and communicate in print, which follows a developmental sequence as a result of an interaction between the child’s emerging process abilities and the structure of orthography. Similar sequential patterns for the English orthography were identified. Referring to German studies, the sequential patterns of spelling and reading strategies which have been found with young children learning the German orthography are outlined. The data show that the acquisition of written language may be characterized as a sequence of dominant strategies. It is argued that these dominant strategies reflect important insights into the nature of written language, such as the concept of the word and the word boundary, the awareness of phonemes and of the principles of orthography. In comparison with learners of English orthography, a long logographic phase seems not to be typical for German children. Only poor readers and spellers who have not yet grasped the alphabetic principle have been observed to use this strategy. The possible difference between English and German speaking children may be explained by two factors: The complexity of orthography, and the effect of school instruction. The rather regular grapheme-phoneme-correspondence of German orthography may facilitate the early development of an alphabetic strategy as a “rational” choice. In classroom instruction both in Austria and Germany teachers place heavy emphasis on phonics. Furthermore, in the first weeks or months of instruction many teachers or primers present only words that are rather regular and have consistent and one-to-one grapheme-phoneme-correspondence. The sequential model offering a new framework for dyslexia is discussed.