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Kahn Horwitz Janina

Vice-Rector, International Engagement

 

 

Dr. Janina Kahn-Horwitz

Ph.D. – University of Haifa, Israel 2001

 

janina_k@oranim.ac.il

 

 

Areas of Interest and Specialization

Early Literacy Acquisition in English as a Foreign Language (EFL)

Spelling Development in English as a Foreign Language

Cross-Linguistic and Orthographic Influences on EFL Literacy Acquisition

Self-Teaching in the Context of EFL Literacy Acquisition

Individual Differences in English as a Foreign Language Acquisition

EFL Teacher Orthographic Related Content Knowledge and Teacher Perceptions 

Academic Position  

Senior Lecturer 2014

Articles in Refereed Journals (English)

Kahn-Horwitz, J. (2015). ‘Organizing the mess in my mind’: EFL teachers’ perceptions and knowledge of English orthography. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 28(5), 611-631.

 

Kahn-Horwitz, J., Kuash, S., Ibrahim, R., & Schwartz, M. (2014). How do previously acquired languages effect acquisition of English as a foreign language: The case of Circassian. Written Language and Literacy, 17(1), 40-61.

 

Schwartz, M., Kahn-Horwitz, J., & Share, D. L., (2013). Orthographic learning and self-teaching in a bilingual and biliterate context. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 117, 45-58.

 

Russak, S., & Kahn-Horwitz, J. (2013). English foreign language spelling: Comparisons between good and poor spellers. Journal of Research in Reading, 38 (3), 307-330.

 

Ibrahim, R., Schwartz, M., Kahn-Horwitz, J., & Leikin, M. (2013). Bi-cultural aspects of second language learning in the bilingual context. Asian EFL Journal, 15(4), 64-88.

 

Kahn-Horwitz, J., Sparks, R. L., & Goldstein, Z. (2012). English as a foreign language spelling development: A longitudinal study. Applied Psycholinguistics, 33(2), 343-363.

 

Kahn-Horwitz, J. (2011). A review of Chemda Benisty’s book: A lexical syllabus for teaching English in junior high school: Improving vocabulary acquisition. Dvarim, 4, 164-166.

 

Kahn-Horwitz, J., Schwartz, M., & Share, D. L. (2011). Acquiring the complex English orthography: A tri-literacy advantage? Journal of Research in Reading, 34(1), 136-156.

 

Kahn-Horwitz, J., Shimron, J., & Sparks, R. L. (2006). Weak and strong novice readers of English as a foreign language: Effects of first language and socioeconomic status. Annals of Dyslexia, 56 (1), 161-186.

 

Kahn-Horwitz, J., Shimron, J., & Sparks, R. L. (2005). Predicting foreign language reading achievement in elementary school students. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 18 (6), 527-558.

 

Kahn-Horwitz, J., Roffman, N., & Teitelbaum, T.G. (1998). Facing the Challenges of learning English as a foreign language in Israel: In response to Ganschow, Sparks and Schneider. Dyslexia, 4, 169-174. 

 

Articles in Refereed Journals (Hebrew)

Kita, B., & Kahn-Horwitz, J. (2003). Teaching English as a foreign language to learning disabled students who have been integrated into regular classes. Issues in Special Education and Rehabilitation, 18(2), 25-36.

 

Chapters in Books

Kahn-Horwitz, J., Sparks, R. L., & Goldstein, Z. (2012). Relevance of the linguistic coding difference hypothesis to English as an additional language literacy in Israel. In M. Leikin, M. Schwartz, & Y. Tobin (Eds.) Current issues in bilingualism (pp. 21-42). NY: Springer.

מרחב אישי

 Summary of my Activities and Future Plans 

   Since the start of my Ph.D., I have researched first language (L1) and additional language predictors of English as a foreign language (EFL) and literacy. I started off examining overall first and foreign language predictors such as semantic, morphological, orthographic, and phonological components for fourth grade Hebrew L1 (Kahn-Horwitz, Shimron, & Sparks, 2005) and 11th grade Arabic L1 (Saba & Kahn-Horwitz, in preparation) students. Five years after I studied Hebrew L1 beginner EFL learners, I returned and examined 77 of the original 145 students from a longitudinal perspective. I examined L1 as well as EFL predictors of 9th grade EFL reading (Kahn-Horwitz, Sparks, & Goldstein, 2012). Finally, eight years later I examined the spelling of the same group of original participants enabling me to examine L1 and EFL predictors of English spelling at three points in the nine years of EFL study at schools (Kahn-Horwitz, Sparks, & Goldstein, 2012).

Recently, I have begun examining more specific finer grained studies. These studies pay particular attention to both orthographic characteristics of first and foreign languages and to the distance between first, second and foreign languages. I have investigated how linguistic and orthographic characteristics of initial languages (Hebrew and Russian) as well as the distance between first and additional languages (Hebrew versus Russian and English) impact on the foreign language literacy acquisition process (Kahn-Horwitz, Schwartz, & Share, 2011; Schwartz, Kahn-Horwitz, & Share, under review). I have  extended this research by looking at the orthographic and phonemic distance between L1 Arabic and L1 Circassian and English and seeing the impact of this distance on English literacy acquisition for L1 Circassian and Arabic children (Kahn-Horwitz, Kuash, Ibrahim, & Schwartz, under review; Schwartz, Kahn-Horwitz, Ibrahim, & Faras, in preparation). The aim of this line of research is to tease apart an advantage of tri-literacy per se as opposed to specific L1 orthographic backgrounds in assisting or creating obstacles when acquiring EFL literacy. 

I am specifically interested in individual differences between language learners. I have examined Hebrew L1 and EFL differences between strong and weak 4th grade language learners (Kahn-Horwitz, Shimron, & Sparks, 2006). I have collected data from weak and strong Hebrew L1 EFL spellers in 5th, 8th and 10th grade together with my colleague Dr. Susie Russak from Beit Berl College (Russak & Kahn-Horwitz, 2013). My future research plans include examining spelling development of weak versus strong Arabic L1 EFL spellers in order to examine L1 specific impact on EFL spelling. I plan to compare spelling results of EFL spellers with English L1 spellers. I would also like to run fine-grained longitudinal research on EFL spelling development. This will provide insight on spelling trajectories of EFL spellers and show to what extent their spelling mirrors that of English L1 spellers and to what extent L1 impacts on EFL spelling development.

 A fourth direction that I plan to continue is collecting and creating norms for the battery of EFL assessment tools that I have built over the years of my clinical practice. In 2007, I conducted a pilot study funded by an Educational Initiative on behalf of Oranim College of Education and the Ministry of Education. I collected data from groups of 30 L1 Hebrew speaking pupil in grades 5 to 10. This study provided some initial answers regarding what one can expect from Hebrew L1 EFL learners regarding English grapheme-phoneme, word recognition, spelling, vocabulary, reading comprehension, reading speed, syntactic and morphological knowledge (Kahn-Horwitz, & Goldstein, in preparation). I plan to conduct a similar pilot study amongst Arabic L1 speakers. These two pilot studies will culminate in a major research project to collect EFL data from students of the aforementioned grades representative of the population in Israel.

A fifth area of interest that I have begun to research involves effective intervention programs for EFL students. I have assisted in developing a computerized accelerated reading program in order to improve accuracy and fluency in EFL reading and completed a pilot study with the program (Kahn-Horwitz, Fuchs, & Breznitz, in preparation). This EFL version of Professor Zvia Breznitz's acceleration reading program is being developed together with Professor Breznitz at the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities at the University of Haifa. I am currently working in conjunction with Professor Zvia Breznitz and a graduate student to computerize various assessment tools and build computerized intervention programs which we will then assess in a research based intervention program. I am continuing this line of research in an attempt to pinpoint effective intervention programs for EFL students with and without learning difficulties.

Finally, I am currently conducting research on assessing and creating a foundation of knowledge of the English orthography amongst pre- and in-service EFL teachers. The aim of this study is to investigate the knowledge of concepts related to the English orthography as well as English orthographic conventions amongst pre-service students prior to, during and following participation in a course on this subject (Kahn-Horwitz, in preparation). In addition, pre-, mid- and post test results will be compared to a group of experienced EFL teachers participating in a semester graduate school course on the Challenges of the English Orthography. These results will be compared to two parallel groups of pre-service and in-service graduate students studying at a college of education who are not enrolled in the courses that deal with the English orthography. Information gained from this research will enable a better understanding regarding preparation of teachers for EFL literacy acquisition amongst elementary school children and children with language learning difficulties. First, second and third rounds of data haves been collected.