The Contribution of Phonological Skills and Letter Knowledge to Early Reading Development in a Multilingual Population

Fifty‐five children from multilingual backgrounds being educated in English were studied longitudinally over a two‐year period, with measures taken of their phonological skill, vocabulary and letter knowledge. Phonological segmentation ability and letter knowledge proved significant predictors of both concurrent and later reading achievement a year later, irrespective of the children's native language. In contrast, rhyming measures were not significant predictors of reading skill. The findings are discussed in terms of theoretical notions about the structure of phonological awareness and its impact on early reading development.