L’apprendimento della lettura nei bambini con italiano L2

The acquisition of reading abilities in a second language (L2) can be difficult to accomplish for bilingual children and for early L2 learners, especially if they are exposed to literacy for the first time in their L2 and if their linguistic competence is still not mature. The presence of possible literacy problems should however be considered with caution: difficulties are indeed often found only in the early stages of reading acquisition and are then likely to disappear; thus, they should not be misunderstood and inappropriately diagnosed as due to specific disorders, like developmental dyslexia. With the aim of shedding light on this delicate topic, this chapter offers a discussion of the aspects that could influence the acquisition of reading skills in bilinguals and that should be taken into account for a more precise evaluation of their literacy development. After a general overview on how reading abilities develop, we discuss the factors that can affect the development of L2 reading. These include age of first exposure to the L2, level of proficiency in both the L1 and the L2, reading abilities in the L1, distance in the orthographic opacity of the two languages and possible effects of the home literacy environment.