The deep mountains of Denmark - a study of the effects of orthographic depth on reading, spelling and vocabulary in a first and in a second language

This thesis investigates the effects of orthographic depth of L1 on orthographic learning and reading, spelling and vocabulary knowledge in L1 and L2. Children from three countries, Denmark, Norway and Sweden were tested on reading, spelling, and vocabulary knowledge in their L1 and in their L2, English. It was expected that the Danish participants would be poorer orthographic learners, and also readers and spellers in both L1 and L2, due to their deep orthography. It was expected that the Norwegian and Swedish participants would be better orthographic learners, and that they would learn to read and spell more easily in both L1 and L2, due to their shallow orthography. The reading, spelling and vocabulary tests in L1 consisted of frequency-balanced cognates, and words of decreasing frequency in L2. A novel-word learning task was used to assess orthographic learning. The results showed that the Danish children made more spelling errors, and read slower and less accurate for both L1 and L2, than the Norwegian and Swedish children. Moreover, Danish children knew the meaning of fewer words in L1 and L2. It is concluded that shallow orthographies promote orthographic learning, and that orthographic learning mediates reading and spelling in L1 and L2