CHILDRENS ORTHOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS IN ENGLISH AND GREEK

Two experiments were conducted to compare the development of orthograp hic representations in children learning to read English and Greek. No nsense words that either shared both orthography and phonology at the level of the rhyme with real words (comic-bomic), phonology only (comi c-bommick), or neither (dilotaff) were created for each orthography. E xperiment 1 compared children's reading of bisyllabic and trisyllabic nonsense words like bomic vs. bommick, taffodil vs. tafoddyl, and foun d a significant facilitatory effect of orthographic rhyme familiarity for English only. Experiment 2 compared children's reading of trisylla bic nonsense words that either shared rhyme phonology with real words (tafoddyl) or did not (dilotaff). Significant facilitation in reading accuracy was found for shared rhyme phonology in English, with a signi ficant speed advantage in Greek. These results are interpreted in term s of the level of phonology that is represented in the orthographic re cognition units being developed by children who are learning to read m ore and less transparent orthographies.