Phoneme awareness is a key component of alphabetic literacy skills in consistent and inconsistent orthographies:: Evidence from Czech and English children

Two studies investigated the importance of phoneme awareness relative to other predictors in the development of reading and spelling among children learning a consistent orthography (Czech) and an inconsistent orthography (English). In Study 1, structural equation models revealed that Czech (n = 107) and English (n = 71) data were fitted well by the same predictors of reading and spelling. Phoneme awareness was a unique predictor in all models. In Study 2, Czech (n = 40) and English (it = 27) children with dyslexia showed similar deficits on phoneme awareness relative to their age- and spelling-matched control peers. Phoneme awareness appears to be a core component skill of alphabetic literacy, which is equally important for learners of consistent and inconsistent orthographies. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.