BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Language, Culture and Diversity
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1613247
Awareness of the phonetic distinctions between oral and written language mediates the connection between phonemic awareness and reading
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
- 2School of Education, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
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The aim of this study was to examine the contributions of dialect awareness in children’s reading when the children use a vernacular language that differs from the form of the language in which they learn to read and write. The target group (N=396) consisted of children, aged 6 to 9 years, who learn literacy in Cyprus using Standard Modern Greek (SMG) but who, in everyday life, use Greek Cypriot that differs from SMG in phonological features. Greek Cypriot children are exposed to oral SMG in formal settings, and it is the medium of instruction in school. Fixed order multiple regression analysis showed that dialect awareness predicted performance in the reading test over and above grade level, the estimated verbal ability and phonemic awareness. The results of the path model with phonemic awareness as the predictor variable, dialect awareness as the mediator and the reading test as the outcome variable, demonstrated that dialect awareness mediates the connection between phonemic awareness and reading. This study makes theoretical and empirical contributions to understanding the connections between oral language and reading.
Keywords: Dialect awareness, Vernacular language, phonemic awareness, reading, Mediator
Received: 16 Apr 2025; Accepted: 05 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pittas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Evdokia Pittas, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
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