Literacy Acquisition: A Plus Factor in French Children’s Word Segmentation After 5 Years of Age

Abstract

Liaison (les[z]ours [le.zuʁs], ʽthe bears’) and enchaînement (une[n]autruche [y.no.tʁy], ʽan ostrich’) are two French phenomena of re-syllabification which entail children's errors in segmentation. Even though re-syllabified words are perceived blended, in writing they appear separated by graphic markers (ʽles ours’, ‘une autruche’). The current study aims to understand the frequency effect and the influence of literacy acquisition in word segmentation by a picture naming task and a writing task testing the same group of 37 children (in a primary school in France from 6:4 to 7:6) at three time periods (pre-readers, beginning readers and readers). Results revealed no frequency effects but a clear contribution of basic skills necessary to writing and reading activities in word segmentation.