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Purpose: The present study investigated whether the number of syllables affects developing readers’ word recognition when controlling for word length and word frequency and, if so, whether the effect is dependent on reading fluency. The target language was Finnish, a language with a transparent orthography and a simple syllable structure. Method: Eye movements of 142 third and fourth graders were recorded during silent reading of two stories. Reading fluency was assessed separately. For analyses, a data subset containing words of a certain length (6,7,9 letters) and varying syllable number (2,3,4 syllables) was extracted from the data set. Using linear mixed-effects modeling, the effect of the syllable number on various eye-tracking measures across different levels of reading fluency was studied. Results: Results revealed a statistically significant, impeding number of syllables effect in first fixation duration but non-significant effects in the later reading measures. Furthermore, fluent and dysfluent readers did not differ regarding the number of syllables effect. Conclusion: These findings suggest that in Finnish developing readers, syllabic parsing is a highly rapid and automatized process, which predominantly takes place during the early holistic orthographic processing of a word, and that qualitatively similar orthographic processing occurs in fluent and dysfluent beginning readers. peerReviewed

The aim of the study was to examine which predictor variables are related to literacy skills among monolingual Swedish (n = 269) and bilingual Finnish–Swedish (n = 229) children at the first grade in the Swedish-speaking schools in Finland. The participants were assessed in phonological awareness, letter knowledge, rapid automatized naming (RAN), word recognition, reading fluency, and spelling. The results showed that RAN was the most significant predictor of reading and spelling skills in both language groups, and monolingual children performed significantly better in RAN. Moreover, letter knowledge predicted reading and spelling skills in both groups. However, no significant differences between language groups in reading and spelling skills were observed. The results emphasize the importance of interpreting the pre-literacy screening, especially with bilingual children. peerReviewed

The aim of the study was to analyse literacy instruction activities and their associations with the reading performance of first graders in Estonia and Finland, two countries that share similar orthographies and educational systems but differ in the onset of formal reading instruction. The contents of 33 Literacy lessons in first grade spring were analysed and students’ (NEST = 415, NFIN = 154) reading performance was assessed in first grade autumn and spring. The results showed that there were more similarities than differences between the countries in literacy instruction activities, but some country-specific interaction effects were found between students’ reading performance and contents of the instruction. Especially the slopes of reading performance development among Finnish beginning readers differed from the other readers in both countries with respect to the content of literacy instruction. The results highlight the importance of responsiveness to students’ needs in early school years literacy instruction. peerReviewed

We examined the relationship between rapid automatized naming (RAN) components – articulation time and pause time – and reading fluency across languages varying in orthographic consistency. Three hundred forty-seven Grade 4 children (82 Chinesespeaking Taiwanese children, 90 English-speaking Canadian children, 90 Greek-speaking Cypriot children, and 85 Finnish-speaking children) were assessed on RAN (Colors and Digits) and reading fluency (word reading efficiency and text reading speed). The results showed that articulation time accounted for more unique variance in reading in the alphabetic orthographies than in Chinese, and pause time for more unique variance in reading in Chinese than in alphabetic orthographies. If automaticity in RAN is manifested with a higher contribution of articulation time to reading fluency than pause time and with a strong relationship between articulation time and pause time, then our findings suggest that automaticity in RAN is reached earlier in alphabetic orthographies than in Chinese. peerReviewed

Only a few studies have examined the direction of associations between academic achievement, interest, and sel f-concept of ability simultaneously by using longitudinal data over several school years. To exam ine the cross-lagged relationships between students’ interest, self-concept of ability, and performance in mathematics and reading, longitudinal data from Grade 1 to Grade 7 of comprehensive school was gathered from 216 students. The results showed that, in both reading and math, performance predicted students’ subsequent self-concept of ability. Some evidence was also found that math performance predicts subsequent interest in mathematics, and that self- concept of math ability mediates the impact of math performance on interest. No evidence was found for the assumption that self-concept of ability or interest would predict subsequent academic performance. peerReviewed