Emergent literacy and reading acquisition: a longitudinal study from kindergarten to primary school

This study explores the predictivity of an emergent literacy model on the acquisition of reading in primary school in a language with a transparent writing system. As writing systems have different levels of transparency, results cannot be easily transferred between languages. In this study, we explored the predictivity of phonological awareness, conceptual knowledge of the writing system, and textual competence in kindergarten on reading acquisition in first grade. We followed 170 Italian children longitudinally from the last year of kindergarten to the first year of primary school. The only significant predictor of reading was conceptual knowledge of the writing system, confirming that in a transparent writing system phonological awareness exerts its effect on reading as it is integrated with knowledge of the characteristics of the writing system.