Correlates of early reading performance in a transparent orthography

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 83first – and 81 fourth graders at the end of theschool year to examine factors accounting forearly reading performance in Finnish, atransparent orthography with a clear mapping ofphonemes onto graphemes. Measures for bothgrades included reading comprehension, phonemeawareness, and object- and digit naming.Additionally measures of skills in morphology,spelling and a screening battery wereadministered to the first graders. The sets ofmeasures accounted for 56% of the variance inreading performance in first grade and 64% infourth grade. Phoneme awareness was stronglyrelated to reading performance and spelling atthe end of first grade, but only forless-skilled readers in fourth grade. Theseresults suggest a larger role for phonemeawareness for children learning a transparentorthography than has been suggested in earlierstudies. At the same time, listeningcomprehension contributed more strongly tofirst-grade reading performance than has beenreported for children learning to readEnglish.     

Orthographic processing is a key predictor of reading fluency in good and poor readers in a transparent orthography

We used structural equation modeling to investigate sources of individual differences in oral reading fluency in a transparent orthography, Russian. Phonological processing, orthographic processing, and rapid automatized naming were used as independent variables, each derived from a combination of two scores: phonological awareness and pseudoword repetition, spelling and orthographic choice, and rapid serial naming of letters and digits, respectively. The contribution of these to oral text-reading fluency was evaluated as a direct relationship and via two mediators, decoding accuracy and unitized reading, measured with a single-word oral reading test. The participants were “good” and “poor” readers, i.e., those with reading skills above the 90th and below the 10th percentiles (n = 1344, grades 2–6, St. Petersburg, Russia). In both groups, orthographic processing skills significantly contributed to fluency and unitized reading, but not to decoding accuracy. Phonological processing skills did not contribute directly to reading fluency in either group, while contributing to decoding accuracy and, to a lesser extent, to unitized reading. With respect to the roles of decoding accuracy and unitized reading, the results for good and poor readers diverged: in good readers, unitized reading, but not decoding accuracy, was significantly related to reading fluency. For poor readers, decoding accuracy (measured as pseudoword decoding) was related to reading fluency, but unitized reading was not. These results underscore the importance of orthographic skills for reading fluency even in an orthography with consistent phonology-to-orthography correspondences. They also point to a qualitative difference in the reading strategies of good and poor readers.     

Dyslexia speed problems in a transparent orthography

This study was intended to help clarify the nature of dyslexia in Spanish. A sample of 30 children, 8 to 16 years old, participated in this study. Dyslexic children were compared to two control groups, a chronological age-matched control group and a reading level-matched control group. Measures included nonword and pseudohomophone reading (phonological procedure), homophone choice (orthographic procedure), and phonological awareness tasks (syllabic, intrasyllabic, and phonemic level). For each task, accuracy (error percentage) and performance time were measured. Results showed a deficit in the dyslexic group on all the tasks, which was more evident when time was considered. With the results consistent with studies in other transparent orthographies such as Italian and German, speed problems seem to be more evident and relevant than accuracy problems in Spanish dyslexic children.

Reading development and dyslexia in a transparent orthography: a survey of Spanish children

Spanish-speaking children learn to read words printed in a relatively transparent orthography. Variation in orthographic transparency may shape the architecture of the reading system and also the manifestation of reading difficulties. We tested normally developing children and children diagnosed with reading difficulties. Reading accuracy was high across experimental conditions. However, dyslexic children read more slowly than chronological age (CA)-matched controls, although, importantly, their reading times did not differ from those for ability-matched controls. Reading times were significantly affected by frequency, orthographic neighbourhood size and word length. We also found a number of significant interaction effects. The effect of length was significantly modulated by reading ability, frequency and neighbourhood. Our findings suggest that the reading development of dyslexic children in Spanish is delayed rather than deviant. From an early age, the salient characteristic of reading development is reading speed, and the latter is influenced by specific knowledge about words.     

The precursors of double dissociation between reading and spelling in a transparent orthography

Research and clinical practitioners have mixed views whether reading and spelling difficulties should be combined or seen as separate. This study examined the following: (a) if double dissociation between reading and spelling can be identified in a transparent orthography (Finnish) and (b) the cognitive and noncognitive precursors of this phenomenon. Finnish-speaking children (n?=?1963) were assessed on reading fluency and spelling in grades 1, 2, 3, and 4. Dissociation groups in reading and spelling were formed based on stable difficulties in grades 1–4. The groups were compared in kindergarten phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, letter knowledge, home literacy environment, and task-avoidant behavior. The results indicated that the double dissociation groups could be identified even in the context of a highly transparent orthography: 41 children were unexpected poor spellers (SD), 36 were unexpected poor readers (RD), and 59 were poor in both reading and spelling (RSD). The RSD group performed poorest on all cognitive skills and showed the most task-avoidant behavior, the RD group performed poorly particularly on rapid automatized naming and letter knowledge, and the SD group had difficulties on phonological awareness and letter knowledge. Fathers’ shared book reading was less frequent in the RD and RSD groups than in the other groups. The findings suggest that there are discernible double dissociation groups with distinct cognitive profiles. This further suggests that the identification of difficulties in Finnish and the planning of teaching and remediation practices should include both reading and spelling assessments.     

Reading in Arabic orthography: The effect of vowels and context on reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers

This study investigated the effect of Arabic vowels and Arabic context on reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers reading narrative stories and newspaper articles. Central to this study is the belief that reading theory today should consider additional variables, especially when explaining the reading process in Arabic orthography among poor and skilled readers. This orthography has not been studied: reading theory today is the sum of conclusions from studies conducted in Latin orthography. The subjects were 109 tenth-grade native Arabic speakers, 39 of them poor readers and 70 skilled readers. Subjects had to read Arabic narrative stories and newspaper articles. There were four reading conditions for each text type: vowelized text, unvowelized text, vowelized word naming, and unvowelized word naming. The results showed that vowels and contexts were important variables to facilitate word recognition in poor and skilled readers in Arabic orthography. A new Arabic reading model for skilled readers is suggested.     

The role of letters and syllables in typical and dysfluent reading in a transparent orthography

The role of letters and syllables in typical and dysfluent second grade reading in Finnish, a transparent orthography, was assessed by lexical decision and naming tasks. Typical readers did not show reliable word length effects in lexical decision, suggesting establishment of parallel letter processing. However, there were small effects of word syllable structure in both tasks suggesting the presence of some sublexical processing also. Dysfluent readers showed large word length effects in both tasks indicating decoding at the letter-phoneme level. When lexical access was required in a lexical decision task, dyslexics additionally chunked the letters into syllables. Response duration measure revealed that dysfluent readers even sounded out the words in phoneme-by-phoneme fashion, depending on the task difficulty. This letter-by-letter decoding is enabled by the transparent orthography and promoted by Finnish reading education.     

Semantic effects as a function of reading skill in word naming of a transparent orthography

The highly transparent Turkish orthography was employed to examine imageability in relation to level of skill in two experiments. In experiment 1, previously skilled readers (n = 24)named 40 high frequency and 40 low frequency words manipulatedfactorially with imageability. A significant main effect was onlyfound for frequency. In experiment 2, a total of 44 adult Turkishreaders (16 very skilled and 28 skilled) named the same stimulias in experiment 1. The results showed an expected main effectfor skill and frequency. However, whilst the main effect forimageability was nonsignificant, a 2-way interaction of skill byimageability and a 3-way interaction of skill by imageability byfrequency were found to be significant. Very skilled readersnamed high imageable low frequency words significantly fasterthan matched low imageable low frequency words. Insofar as poorreaders are concerned the results are contradictory to previousfindings in English whilst data from highly skilled participantsare in line with those reported for skilled readers for English.Implications of these findings on the existing literature arediscussed.     

A reading-level match study of phonemic processes underlying reading disabilities in a transparent orthography

The current study examined the relationship in Spanish (i.e., a transparent orthography) between different levels of phonological awareness and reading disabilities. In addition, the strategies used by the children when they resolved phoneme segmentation and reversal tasks were analyzed. A sample of 133 subjects were selected and organized in three different groups: (1) A group of 45 reading-disabled children, (2) A comparison group of 44 normal readers matched in age with the reading disabled, and (3) A reading level match group of 44 younger normal readers at the same reading level as the reading disabled. Three phonological awareness tasks were used to measure levels of intrasyllabic and phonemic awareness. The reading disabled group was equivalent to the younger reading level-matched control group in the odd-word-out task. However, there were differences in the phonemic tasks (e.g., phoneme segmentation and reversal) because the reading disabled group performed more poorly than the younger children. Overall, the children matched in age with the reading disabled group were superior in all phonological awareness tasks. There were differences between the groups when the strategies used by the children were analyzed.     

Acquisition of reading and written spelling in a transparent orthography: Two non parallel processes?

Reading and written spelling skills for words and non-words of varying length and orthographic complexity were investigated in normal Italian first and second graders. The regularity and transparency of the mapping between letters and phonemes make Italian orthography an unlikely candidate for discrepancies between reading and spelling to emerge. This notwithstanding, the results showed that reading accuracy is significantly better than spelling. The difference is particularly striking in first graders, but it is still evident in 2nd graders, though most strongly on non-words. The data show that reading and written spelling are non parallel processes and that the developmental asynchrony reflects a partial structural independence of the two systems.     

Evidence for the early emergence of the simple view of reading in a transparent orthography

The main aim of the present study was to empirically test the emergence of the Simple View of Reading (SVR) in a transparent orthography, and specifically in Greek. To do so, we examined whether the constituent components of the SVR could be identified in young, Greek-speaking children even before the beginning of formal reading instruction. Our investigation focused on Kindergarten children and examined the dissociation of decoding-related and language comprehension skills using Exploratory Factor Analysis. All children were administered a battery of decoding-related and comprehension measures. The analysis demonstrated that comprehension and decoding-related measures loaded as distinct factors in young Greek-speaking children and that the two factors were weakly correlated. The present findings provide important support for the validity of the SVR framework as a model of reading skills acquisition in a language with a transparent orthography, such as Greek.     

Beginning readers' sensitivity to different linguistic levels – an error and correction analysis at the lexical,syntactic, and semantic levels

As the first step in a longitudinal investigation ofSwedish beginning readers' reading behaviour, thisstudy investigated the role of different linguisticlevels in beginning readers' oral reading. The 30participating beginning readers were all able to reada short running text without help. Recordings of theiroral readings of unfamiliar texts were video-recorded,transcribed and analysed as to linguistic consequencesof reading errors, and tendency to correct errors withdifferent linguistic consequences. The results revealthat the readers are sensitive to all of thelinguistic levels analysed: the majority of readingerrors lead to acceptable linguistic consequences,regardless of what linguistic level is analysed;moreover linguistically unacceptable errors weresignificantly more frequently corrected thanlinguistically acceptable errors, independent of thelinguistic level affected by the error.     

Visual and phonological processing of words: a comparison of good and poor readers

At the beginning of the school year, 80 first graders, half receiving phonics instruction and half receiving whole word instruction, were asked to spell, read aloud, and recognize 60 regular and exception words. A standardized reading test and phoneme segmentation test were also administered. Those above grade level in reading excelled in phonological recording and application of grapheme-phoneme correspondence rules and were weaker in utilization of visual-orthographic knowledge. Those below grade level applied visual more than phonological coding and benefited from the visual-orthographic knowledge available in a clue word. Results support a continuum of visual and phonological analysis skills in first-grade reading consistent with Frith's (1985) logographic, alphabetic, and orthographic skill levels.     

Visual FoxPro中常见错误及其处理方法

在应用程序设计中 ,程序的调试是程序设计的重要一环 .重点介绍Visualfoxpro中常见错误及其错误的处理方法 ,以便提高应用程序的质量和效果     

Effects of structural features on word recognition development of hispanic and non-hispanic second graders

Reading and Writing - Do Hispanic and non-Hispanic second graders acquire knowledge ofstructural features of words in the same order and at the same rate? Doesthe order and rate of acquisition of...     

Lexical and sub-lexical effects on accuracy, reaction time and response duration: impaired and typical word and pseudoword reading in a transparent orthography

In an opaque orthography like English, phonological coding errors are a prominent feature of dyslexia. In a transparent orthography like Spanish, reading difficulties are characterized by slower reading speed rather than reduced accuracy. In previous research, the reading speed deficit was revealed by asking children to read lists of words. However, speed in list reading sums the time required to prepare an utterance, reaction time (RT), with the time required to say it, response duration (RD). Thus, the dyslexic speed deficit in transparent orthographies could be driven by slow RTs, by slow RDs, or both. The distinction is especially important if developmental readers rely on phonological coding to achieve lexical access because the whole word would have to be encoded before it could be identified. However, while the factors that affect reading RT have been extensively investigated, no attention has been paid to RD. We studied the performance of typically developing and dyslexic Spanish children in an oral reading task. We analysed the impact of word frequency and length on reading accuracy, RT, and RD. We found that accuracy, RT, and RD were affected by word frequency and length for both control and dyslexic readers. We also observed interactions between effects of reader group—dyslexic, typically developing (TD) younger or TD older readers—and effects of lexicality, frequency, and word length. Our results show that children are capable of reading aloud using lexical and sub-lexical coding processes in a transparent orthography.     

Visual and social determinants of shock-elicited aggressive responding in rats

Light and dark reared, social and isolate housed, male Long-Evans hooded rats were tested in bright and dim light for aggressive response to footshock. Test lighting and socialization main effects were significant, with greater fighting in dim light than in bright light and greater fighting by isolates than by socially housed animals. Test lighting interacted with prior visual experience and socialization interacted with past and present illumination variables. The results suggest an inhibitory effect of test illumination dependent upon prior social and visual experience.     

Learning a transparent orthography at five years old: reading development of children during their first year of formal reading instruction in Wales

This study compared the early reading development of five‐year‐old children who were learning to read either English (an opaque orthography) or Welsh (a shallow orthography). The children were being educated in Welsh and English‐speaking primary schools in Wales during their first year of formal reading instruction. Teaching methods in both schools emphasised phonics. The reading, letter recognition and phonological awareness skills of the children were tested at three points in the year (November 1998, March 1999 and June 1999). By March, the children who were learning to read in Welsh were performing better than the English‐speaking group at word recognition. The English‐speaking children showed some improvement in their ability to read regular words across the three test phases, but no significant improvement in their ability to read irregular words. The children learning to read in Welsh also performed better on a phoneme counting task in March and June than the English‐speaking children. Both groups performed similarly on tests of letter recognition throughout the year. The results suggest that a transparent orthography facilitates reading acquisition and phoneme awareness skills from the earliest stages of reading development onward.     

Visual Foxpro程序中错误的识别和避免

就面向对象Visaul Foxpro语言在编程过程中常见错误的识别和避免进行了概括和归纳。