The relation between syntactic awareness and contextual facilitation in word reading: What is the role of semantics?

Objective: Our objective was to examine the role of semantics in the relation between syntactic awareness and contextual facilitation in word reading. Methods: Grade 3 children (N = 77) completed a syntactic awareness task in which we manipulated the possible reliance on semantic information. They also completed a task of word reading in isolation and in context from which we calculated a score of contextual facilitation. Results: We found an association between children’s performance in the syntactic awareness task and contextual facilitation in word reading. Importantly, however, we found an association only when children could rely on semantic information in the syntactic awareness task, and not when the semantic information was limited. Conclusions: These findings suggest that syntactic awareness acts together with semantics to foster the use of context in word reading, which has important implications for theories of reading development. Keywords: Syntactic awareness, contextual facilitation, word reading, semantics.