Compensatory strategies across languages during reading acquisition

Reading acquisition primarily relies on acquiring novel orthographic forms. In this process, efficient decoding of orthographically novel words can be difficult due to the unpredictability of the written-spoken language relationship. Thus, children are forced to develop strategies for effectively acquiring novel words. The main goal of my project is to investigate the compensatory strategies employed by novice readers. I will study two compensatory strategies: one suggests employing a larger processing grain during decoding for better accuracy, based on the Grain Size Theory, while the other recommends using contextual cues to learn despite decoding inaccuracies.Given the predominant focus on English monolinguals in behavioral and computational studies and the central role of language opacity in reading, I will focus on languages with varying degrees of opacity. Additionally, I will also study reading acquisition among bilingual individuals, considering the widespread prevalence of bilingualism in Europe, an area that has been relatively under-explored.In the study of compensation strategies, I identified both computational and behavioral research needs in the literature. Therefore, in this project, I propose a computational study to define a reliable opacity measure. Building on the computational model of reading acquisition I developed during my PhD, I also aim to simulate the Grain Size Theory, and implement a bilingual reading acquisition model to simulate relevant behavioral data. Additionally, I will conduct cross-linguistic behavioral studies on context effects, including both monolingual and bilingual individuals.Cross-linguistic comparisons will help improve the generalizability of findings, addressing an urgent need in the literature. This multidisciplinary approach will also strengthen the links between theoretical cognitive mechanisms and behavioral effects, thereby improving our knowledge of compensation strategies during reading acquisition.