Efeitos psicolinguísticos na leitura de crianças brasileiras e moçambicanas

Abstract

This study is a descriptive, cross-sectional, and quantitative research that aimed to compare the psycholinguistic effects on the reading of Brazilian and Mozambican children in the early years of schooling. With a sample of 201 children aged 7 to 9 years, from the 2nd and 3rd years of Elementary School and the 1st Cycle, consisting of 90 Brazilian and 111 Mozambican children, the research analyzed the children's performance in a single-word reading task regarding the effects of regularity, length, frequency, and lexicality through statistical analysis to compare word and pseudoword reading accuracy between the groups. The results showed that in the Brazilian group, the regularity effect was significant, suggesting a greater reliance on the phonological route. On the other hand, Mozambican children demonstrated a more balanced development between the phonological and lexical routes, with a null regularity effect. Both groups showed progress throughout the school years, with a growing dominance of the lexical route from the 2nd to the 3rd year, as predicted by reading development models. Although the curriculum in both countries suggests synthetic literacy methods, such as phonics and mixed methods, it is possible that in Brazil, teachers still frequently opt for the global method, which may impact the reading profile. The identified differences and similarities provide support for the diagnosis and intervention in reading difficulties in different sociolinguistic contexts, as well as contribute to the development of assessment tools adapted to the particularities of each country.