Comparison of the effect of learning to read in English or in Dutch on the acquisition of the French orthographic code in French-speaking children attending immersion school programs. ; Comparaison de l’effet de l’apprentissage de la lecture en Anglais et en Néerlandais sur l’acquisition du code orthographique français chez des enfants francophones suivant un programme d’immersion scolaire.

Most of the children attending bilingual immersion school programs in the French Community of Belgium learn to read in the immersion language before learning to read in their native language. This study aimed to explore the effect of learning to read in a second language having a transparent (Dutch) versus an opaque (English) orthographic code, on the later acquisition of French spelling. Because literacy acquisition depends on the orthographic depth of the code, the hypothesis is that learning to spell in a transparent language such as Dutch would promote the acquisition of the more opaque Fr... Mehr ...