Language and literacy at school – the contribution of metasyntactic abilities to reading comprehension development

Identification

  • Project identification: Language and literacy at school – the contribution of metasyntactic abilities to reading comprehension development (CEECIND/00274/2018)
  • Researcher: Joana Batalha (LiFE group)
  • Start date: 2020
  • Funding entity: FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology – Call for the Stimulus of Scientific Employment Individual Support 2018

Description

The development of oral language and linguistic awareness is fundamental for learning to read, especially at the early stages of schooling. Considering the few national studies investigating linguistic awareness, particularly in the syntactic domain, and its relationship with reading in Portuguese children, this project aims to investigate the contribution of metasyntactic abilities to reading comprehension in European Portuguese speakers attending the first cycle of basic education in Portuguese schools.

The general aims of the project are as follows:
a) To develop tasks to assess metasyntactic abilities in European Portuguese;
b) To investigate whether and how these abilities can be enhanced through learning developed in the classroom;
c) To describe the relationship between the development of metasyntactic abilities and reading comprehension in school-age children.