The role of phonological knowledge and rapid naming in the development of spelling and reading in Turkish

Abstract

This study explores reading and spelling development of Turkish-speaking children in Grade 1 and 2. We examined predictors of word spelling and reading skills as well as the developmental relationship between spelling and reading abilities. Our major focus was on the role of phonological encoding skills and rapid automatized naming (RAN) in reading and spelling. Data were gathered from 71 students and analyzed quantitatively. The results showed that phonological encoding was a significant predictor of spelling skills while RAN was a strong predictor of reading skills in Turkish. Besides, phonological encoding significantly contributed to the reading skills of the second graders while it did not account for significant amounts of variance in word reading ability of the first graders.