Dialect awareness and literacy in a bidialectal setting

Evdokia Pittas, Terezina Nunes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study, which took place in a bidialectal setting, examined the extent to which dialect awareness in Time 1 can predict reading and spelling in Time 2. The children (N = 49, 7-to 9-year olds) were learning literacy in Cyprus where a dialect is spoken in certain contexts but Standard Modern Greek is also widely used. Because there are no standardised measures of dialect awareness in Greek, we developed measures of this factor as part of the study. The dialect measures were related to reading and morphological spelling tests six months later. The educational implication of these results, which still must be tested through intervention studies, is that improving children's dialect awareness may lead to enhanced success in literacy learning in bidialectal settings.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)56-82
Number of pages27
JournalHellenic Journal of Psychology
Volume11
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • Dialect awareness
  • Greek Cypriot Dialect
  • Reading
  • Spelling
  • Standard Modern Greek

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