Reading and spelling acquisition in Polish

Educational and linguistic determinants

Abstract

The process of reading and spelling acquisition, especially at the initial stage, is determined by the linguistic features of a given language and differs in various orthographic systems. However, the fundamental stages are assumed to be the same in all languages. Linguistic awareness plays a crucial role in the early stage of this process. The aim of this paper is to propose a model of acquiring reading and spelling skills in Polish children. The model shows the course of the process and takes into account essential elements of language awareness.

The basis for this model are the authors' research results concerning reading and spelling acquisition by Polish children aged 5-8. In the discussion, the authors try to find out if the model of reading and spelling acquisition in Polish is different than in others languages, and if this is the case, what determines it.

The comparison studies on the acquisition of both skills in European languages, especially in English and Polish, prove that there are some differences conditioned mainly by the way in which script is introduced to Polish children, as well as the features of the Polish language system. The specificity of reading acquisition in Polish language consists in omitting the logographic phase, distinguished in English-language models (e.g. Frith 1985), and the specificity of spelling acquisition—in exceptions from the standard spelling which are generally similar, but differently conditioned. The research of linguistic conditions of reading in the early stage of life also shows interesting dependencies, slightly different than in English-speaking children, concerning cognitive predictors and reading correlates, as well as reading strategies used by children.