O uso das rotas de leitura no bilinguismo e sua relação com a profundidade ortográfica e a proficiência nas línguas

Abstract

Reading involves multiple interdependent processes and, according to the dual route model, this is basically achieved through two routes, the phonological route (normally used to read new words or pseudowords) and the lexical route (for reading familiar and irregular words). Reading in the mother tongue (L1) requires explicit instruction and it is a great challenge. By learning a second language (L2), new elements (phonological, orthographic and semantic, among others) are introduced into reading, requiring the speaker to choose between two written codes each time one has to read. Moreover, during this process of choice, more characteristic reading strategies of one language may interfere with the reading strategy of the other. Research indicates that, just as in the case of monolingual subjects, several factors influence the reading strategy used by bilingual subjects, the orthographic depth of the language and the reader's proficiency being the key elements. This study aims at identifying how these factors influence the strategy of reading in late bilinguals (beginners or proficient), native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese with English as a second language. In order to do this, accuracy and the latencies required to word and nonword reading in both L1 and L2 were measured. Among the main results we found that the most proficient group (MaP) had a shorter reading time in the words and pseudowords of PB than the less proficient group (MeP), suggesting an interference of L2 (more opaque) in L1 (more transparent) and a larger use of the lexical route in L1. In addition, the study revealed that in the MeP group there was no difference between the time of reading of words and pseudowords in English, suggesting a predominance of the use of the phonological route in the reading of L2 (more opaque). Such findings are important to reinforce that the choice of reading strategies and the use of routes are susceptible to multiple factors, which act together and interrelated.