Elsevier

Cognition

Volume 91, Issue 1, February 2004, Pages 77-111
Cognition

Is there a causal link from phonological awareness to success in learning to read?

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-0277(03)00164-1Get rights and content

Abstract

In this review, we re-assess the evidence that phonological awareness represents a skill specific to spoken language that precedes and directly influences the process of reading acquisition. Longitudinal and experimental training studies are examined in detail, as these are considered most appropriate for exploring a causal hypothesis of this nature. A particular focus of our analysis is the degree to which studies to date have controlled for existing literacy skills in their participants and the influence that these skills might have on performance on phonological awareness tasks. We conclude that no study has provided unequivocal evidence that there is a causal link from competence in phonological awareness to success in reading and spelling acquisition. However, we believe that such a study is possible and outline some ideas for its design and implementation.

Section snippets

Introduction: phonological awareness and its association with reading

Broadly defined, phonological awareness refers to the ability to perceive and manipulate the sounds of spoken words (Goswami and Bryant, 1990, Mattingly, 1972). It encompasses awareness of the most basic speech units of a language – phonemes – as well as larger units such as rimes and syllables. The “awareness” component of the term is as important to the definition as the “phonological” component, for the skill is proposed to involve, not simply unconsciously discriminating speech sounds (such

Longitudinal studies

Longitudinal studies of the relationship between phonological awareness and reading involve measuring phonological awareness at Time t1 and correlating it with reading and/or spelling performance at Time t2 and beyond. No such longitudinal correlational design can ever conclusively establish a causal link between two factors, because of the much-cited third variable problem (see e.g. Bryant and Goswami, 1987, MacMillan, 2002). For example, although phonological awareness at Time t1 might be

Training studies

Numerous phonological awareness training studies have been conducted, with a huge variety of aims, methodologies and outcomes (as clearly evidenced in the recent meta-analysis by Bus & van Ijzendoorn, 1999). In assessing these studies for the present purposes, we once again established a set of requirements that would need to be fulfilled if clear support for the strong causal hypothesis were to be obtained. Some of these requirements concern aspects of the design or methodology of the studies,

Discussion

In this review, we sought to scrutinize the huge and varied body of research on phonological awareness and literacy acquisition in the context of a single, fairly specific question: Does phonological awareness encompass a set of purely spoken language skills that precede and directly affect the process of reading and spelling acquisition? We felt that this question deserved re-examination given that, in our view, the major significance of phonological awareness lies in its status as a possible

Acknowledgements

This paper and the ideas behind it have benefited greatly from the insightful and constructive comments of several experts in the field. We are particularly grateful to Brian Byrne, Veronika Coltheart, Nancy Jackson, Michael Johnston, Sachiko Kinoshita, John Marshall, Kate Nation, Richard Olson, Conrad Perry, David Share, Morag Stuart and three anonymous reviewers.

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