Nauka języka angielskiego a rozwój kompetencji fonologicznej polskich dzieci w wieku przedszkolnym

Learning English and the development of phonological competence of polish children in preschool ageThe relationship between different aspects of phonological awareness and later success in reading and writing acquisition has been under discussion for years. The progress in literacy is depends on some pre-existing cognitive competencies and phonological awareness is one of them (Sczerbinski, 2001; Bogdanowicz, Krasowicz, 1996). Research conducted by Bogdanowicz and Krasowicz (1996) shows, that development of language skills involved in the reading acquisition of Polish children proceeds in a different way from that of English ones, due to the specificity of the Polish language.In our research we were interested to find out if there is existing correlation between phonological awareness assessed in both acquired languages: Polish and English and if the level of certain aspects of phonological awareness differs in groups of children who acquire English language together with their mother tongue and those who do not.Groups investigated consisted of 50 girls and 50 boys from 4;5 to 6;3 years of age, who belonged to 3 groups depending on the intensity of the English language acquisition. Such aspects of phonological awareness as phonemes comparison, syllable analysis and synthesis or rhyme and alliteration detection were assessed by specially prepared methods. The results were inconsistent. Syllable blending and rhyme detection skills turned out to be better developed while phonemes comparison task was performed worse in the group of children learning English in comparison to the second group. Research supports the hypothesis of common phonological system in preschool children, who started to learn English after 3rd year of age.