This thesis examined the role of metalinguistic skills in concurrent and subsequent word-level reading and oral vocabulary among Chinese-English bilingual children who learned Chinese as their heritage language and English as their societal language. While previous studies on biliteracy development among this group of children have mostly focused on one of the two languages, this thesis gave equal emphasis to both languages. The research had two general purposes: 1) to investigate the role of phonological awareness, morphological awareness and orthographic processing in predicting word-level reading and oral vocabulary in Chinese and English concurrently and longitudinally; and 2) to examine the cross-linguistic role of phonological and morphological awareness to word-level reading and vocabulary, concurrently and longitudinally, between Chinese and English. These goals were explored through two interrelated studies, using path analyses. The participants included 91 Chinese-English bilingual children, recruited from kindergarten and Grade 1 Chinese heritage language classes in Canada. They were tested twice, one year apart, on a battery of cognitive and literacy measures in Chinese and English. Findings of Study 1 on within-language relationships indicated that, for word-level reading, all three metalinguistic skills were independent concurrent predictors in English, whereas only morphological awareness was predictive in Chinese. For oral vocabulary, morphological awareness was the only concurrent predictor in both languages. The longitudinal contributions of these metalinguistic skills were mostly mediated through the auto-regressors of the literacy outcomes. Findings of Study 2 on between-language relationships demonstrated that Chinese phonological awareness directly contributed to concurrent and subsequent English word reading beyond the effect of concurrent English phonological awareness. Yet, Chinese morphological awareness indirectly predicted concurrent and subsequent English oral vocabulary through concurrent English morphological awareness. Similarly, English morphological awareness only indirectly predicted concurrent and subsequent Chinese oral vocabulary. These findings suggest that different metalinguistic skills are required for literacy development in Chinese and English. Moreover, metalinguistic skills transfer to literacy, even across two typologically distant languages, but the transfer patterns of phonological and morphological awareness to different literacy skills vary considerably. These results are discussed in light of current reading and transfer models as well as linguistic contexts of biliteracy acquisition.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-03-09T11:22:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 lucienecorreamiranda.pdf: 351453 bytes, checksum: bc0fc95af5d26e4bfc368d34ae245354 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-03-10T12:25:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 lucienecorreamiranda.pdf: 351453 bytes, checksum: bc0fc95af5d26e4bfc368d34ae245354 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-10T12:25:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 lucienecorreamiranda.pdf: 351453 bytes, checksum: bc0fc95af5d26e4bfc368d34ae245354 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-10-02 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Estudos recentes têm investigado a contribuição das habilidades metalingüísticas na aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita. Dentre elas a consciência fonológica, definida como a capacidade de refletir sobre os sons que compõem a fala, e a consciência morfológica que é a capacidade de refletir sobre os morfemas que compõem as palavras. A consciência fonológica ajuda na escrita por auxiliar a criança a adquirir o princípio alfabético. Menos se sabe sobre o papel do processamento morfológico na aquisição da leitura e da escrita. Este estudo foi direcionado a crianças do segundo e terceiro ano, as quais foram submetidas a testes padronizados e tarefas de consciência morfológica e fonológica. Teve dois objetivos: investigar a relação entre a consciência morfológica e fonológica e a aquisição da leitura e escrita; investigar o processamento morfológico e sua relação com a estrutura fonológica das palavras no português do Brasil. Foi possível perceber uma correlação significativa da consciência fonológica para a leitura e a escrita. A contribuição da consciência morfológica para a leitura foi até certo ponto independente da consciência fonológica; para a escrita não houve contribuição significativa. Para esta faixa etária não encontramos evidências de efeitos do processamento morfológico na escrita. / Recent studies have investigated the contribution of metalinguistic awareness in reading and spelling. Among those, phonological awareness, defined as the ability to reflect upon the sounds of the words and, morphological awareness that can be defined as the ability to reflect upon the word’s morphemes. Phonological awareness helps writing because it helps the child to acquire the alphabetic principle. Less is known about the role of morphological processing in reading and spelling acquisition. Second and third year children of elementary school participate in this study. The children were tested on standardized tests and tasks of morphological awareness and phonological awareness. The study had two goals: to investigate the relationship between morphological awareness and phonological awareness and acquisition of reading and writing, and to investigate morphological processing and its relationship to the phonological structure of words in Brazilian Portuguese. It was possible to detect a significant correlation between phonological awareness for reading and spelling. The contribution of morphological awareness for reading was somewhat independent to phonological awareness. For spelling there was no significant contribution of metalinguistic awareness. For children of this age group there was no evidence found for significant correlations between morphological processing and writing.

[pt] A presente tese tem como objetivo identificar e analisar práticas pedagógicas voltadas para o desenvolvimento da consciência fonológica e consciência morfológica na alfabetização. O procedimento de produção dos dados ocorreu por meio de questionário on-line, com relato das professoras de suas práticas pedagógicas na alfabetização e respondentes que se prontificaram a participar da entrevista semiestruturada. Para análise qualitativa dos dados foi utilizado o software ATLAS.ti, organizando as produções em categorias, subcategorias e eixos de análise. Com isso, foi possível estabelecer dois estudos: no primeiro investigou-se a percepção das professoras sobre as dificuldades dos estudantes quando começam a aprender a escrever e as habilidades a serem desenvolvidas durante este processo. Os resultados indicam uma centralidade dirigida ao meio sociocultural, com apontamento para práticas de letramento no ambiente doméstico e escolar; os conhecimentos específicos, próprios do processo de ensino-aprendizagem, com destaque para a consciência fonológica e aspectos relacionados às emoções, no que tange ao medo e insegurança quando ocorre o erro do estudante no momento da escrita. O segundo estudo evidenciou a organização das práticas pedagógicas relatadas em um inventário que as caracteriza em cinco tipologias: práticas em consciência fonológica; práticas de ampliação de repertório cultural; práticas em leitura e escrita; práticas envolvendo diferentes áreas; e práticas em outros contextos. Não foram identificadas práticas para o desenvolvimento da consciência morfológica, o que pode ser um indicativo de lacuna na formação docente e, desse modo, o desconhecimento que essa habilidade contribui para a leitura e para a escrita de palavras mais complexas ortograficamente. A prática em consciência fonológica foi relatada por onze professoras, sendo a maior concentração em atividades voltadas para a subárea da consciência fonêmica e nenhuma dirigida para rima e aliteração. Os resultados deste estudo indicam que as professoras têm um conhecimento sobre a consciência fonológica e utilizam como estratégia no ensino de atividades lúdicas, principalmente, o jogo criado ou adaptado para o contexto específico da turma. Mas, apesar disso, foram poucos os relatos que indicaram o ensino estruturado, no sentido de uma sequência pela qual seja possível identificar as intencionalidades de onde partem e onde querem chegar com as atividades propostas. Tal constatação levanta a necessidade de mais investimento para a formação docente nesta área. A pesquisa também identificou que poucas professoras recorrem às tecnologias digitais para o ensino, algo diretamente ligado à baixa infraestrutura nas escolas. / [en] This thesis aims to identify and analyze pedagogical practices aimed at the development of phonological awareness and morphological awareness in literacy. The procedure of data production took place through an online questionnaire, with teachers reporting their teaching practices in literacy and respondents who volunteered to participate in the semi-structured interview. For qualitative data analysis, the ATLAS.ti software was used, organizing the productions into categories, subcategories and analysis axes. Thus, it was possible to establish two studies: in the first, the perception of teachers about the difficulties of students when they begin to learn to write and the skills to be developed during this process was investigated. The results indicate a centrality directed to the sociocultural environment, pointing to literacy practices in the home and school environment; specific knowledge, typical of the teachinglearning process, with emphasis on phonological awareness and aspects related to emotions, regarding fear and insecurity when the student makes a mistake at the time of writing. The second study evidenced the organization of pedagogical practices reported in an inventory that characterizes them in five typologies: practices in phonological awareness; cultural repertoire expansion practices; reading and writing practices; practices involving different areas; and practices in other contexts. Practices for the development of morphological awareness were not identified, which may indicate a gap in teacher education and, thus, the lack of knowledge that this skill contributes to reading and writing more complex words in terms of spelling. The practice in phonological awareness was reported by eleven teachers, with the greatest concentration in activities aimed at the phonemic awareness sub-area and none directed at rhyme and alliteration. The results of this study indicate that the teachers have knowledge about phonological awareness, using as a strategy in the teaching of recreational activities, mainly, the game created or adapted to the specific context of the class. But, despite this, there were few reports that indicated structured teaching, in the sense of a sequence through which it is possible to identify the intentions from where they start and where they want to go with the proposed activities. This finding raises the need for more investment in teacher training in this area. The survey also identified that few teachers resort to digital technologies for teaching, something directly linked to the low infrastructure in schools.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-06-17T11:52:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 mariaabigailaguilarquirin.pdf: 928887 bytes, checksum: 32c29d5b89ba5f8c357b98046d27d1f6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-07-13T14:34:03Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 mariaabigailaguilarquirin.pdf: 928887 bytes, checksum: 32c29d5b89ba5f8c357b98046d27d1f6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-13T14:34:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 mariaabigailaguilarquirin.pdf: 928887 bytes, checksum: 32c29d5b89ba5f8c357b98046d27d1f6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-03 / O presente estudo investigou a relação dos preditores cognitivos da leitura e do engajamento escolar com a habilidade de leitura. Participaram dessa pesquisa um total de 74 crianças matriculadas, inicialmente, no 4o ano do Ensino Fundamental (EF), as quais foram avaliadas uma segunda vez após os dois meses iniciais do 5º ano do EF, sendo 53 crianças de escolas municipais e 21 crianças de uma escola estadual. Avaliou-se a consciência morfológica, consciência fonológica, memória de trabalho fonológica, nomeação seriada rápida, inteligência, engajamento escolar e a leitura (precisão, fluência e compreensão) nos alunos participantes. Os resultados evidenciaram que as habilidades de precisão e compreensão de leitura contribuem de forma positiva para a consciência fonológica. Também se identificou uma contribuição da memória de trabalho fonológica para a fluência de leitura. Além disso, a nomeação seriada rápida contribui positivamente para a compreensão de leitura e em relação ao engajamento escolar, identificou-se uma contribuição positiva do engajamento comportamental para a habilidade de compreensão de leitura. / The present study investigated the relation between cognitive predictors of reading and school engagement with reading skills. Seventy-four children from Brazilian public schools took part on this study. They were initially evaluated when coursing 4th grade and were evaluated a second time while coursing the second month of 5th grade. They were evaluated on morphological awareness, phonological awareness, phonological working memory, rapid automatized naming, student engagement and reading skills (precision, fluency, and comprehension). Results showed that both accuracy and reading comprehension positively contribute to phonological awareness. In addition, it was possible to identify a contribution of the phonological working memory to the reading fluency. Besides that, the study revealed that rapid automatized naming positively contributes to reading comprehension. In regards to student engagement, the study identified a positive contribution of behavioral engagement to reading comprehension.