Because trucks aren’t bicycles: orthographic complexity as an important variable in reading research

Severe enduring reading- and writing-accuracy difficulties seem a phenomenon largely restricted to nations using complex orthographies, notably Anglophone nations, given English’s highly complex orthography (Geva and Siegel, Read Writ 12:1–30, 2000; Landerl et al., Cognition 63:315–334, 1997; Share, Psychol Bull 134(4):584–615, 2008; Torgesen and Davis, J Exp Child Psychol 63:1–21, 1996; Vellutino, J Learn Disabil 33(3):223, 2000). They seem rare in transparent orthography nations such as Finland, which use highly regular spelling and few spelling rules beyond letter sounds, and most children read and write with impressive accuracy by the end of Year 1 (Holopainen et al., J Learn Disabil 34(5):401–413, 2001; Seymour et al., Br J Psychol 94:143–174, 2003; Spencer and Hanley, Br J Psychol 94(1):1–29, 2003; J Res Read 27(1):1–14, 2004). Orthographic complexity has strong and diverse impacts on reading, writing and academic development (Aro, Learning to read: The effect of orthography, 2004; Galletly and Knight, Aust J Learn Disabil 9(4):4–11, 2004; Aust Educ Res 38(3):329–354, 2011). Despite these strong effects, orthographic complexity is rarely included as a variable in reading research studies considering evidence from both Anglophone (complex orthography) and transparent-orthography readers, or included in discussion of factors influencing results. This paper discusses the differences in reading-accuracy development and difficulties evidenced in studies of Anglophone (complex-orthography) and transparent-orthography readers. It then explores instances of orthographic complexity not being considered in studies where it may have impacted results. This disregarding of orthographic complexity as a variable in research studies appears an oversight, one likely to be contributing to continuing confusion on many aspects of reading and writing development in both healthy- and low-progress readers. Needs for research in these areas are discussed.     

On the acquisition of some basic word spelling mechanisms in a deep (French) and a shallow (Spanish) system

An experiment was carried out to compare the time course of the acquisition of two basic spelling mechanisms in Spanish, a shallow system, and French, a deep system. The first was lexical. It relies on the orthographic lexicon, a hypothetical structure containing the orthographic representations of words accessible for word spelling. To evaluate its contribution the participants were asked to spell words of high and low frequency containing phonemes which can take different graphemic values. The second mechanism relies on sub-lexical processes. Its contribution was evaluated asking the participants to spell words containing consistent phoneme-to-grapheme translation pairs which were identical in Spanish and French. Two contrasting predictions were considered, one derived from the Orthographic Depth Hypothesis (ODH, Frost, 2005) and the other from the Self-Teaching Hypothesis (STH, Share, 2004). According to the ODH, the orthographic lexicon should develop more rapidly in French than in Spanish because Spanish spellers can rely on phoneme-to-grapheme translation mechanisms to spell most words, meaning that they do not need to resort to the orthographic lexicon. In contrast, the STH suggests that effective identification of a word gradually generates its orthographic representation. The results revealed that both spelling mechanisms develop far faster in Spanish than in French. The fact that word frequency effects appeared earlier in Spanish than in French, indicating that the orthographic lexicon incorporates words more rapidly in a shallow than in a deep system, is clearly incompatible with the ODH and easier to handle in the context of the STH.     

Beyond decoding deficit: inhibitory effect of positional syllable frequency in dyslexic Spanish children

This study explores whether activation and inhibition word processes contribute to the characteristic speed deficits found in transparent orthographies (Wimmer, Appl Psycholinguist 14:1–33, 1993). A second and fourth grade sample of normal school readers and dyslexic school readers participated in a lexical decision task. Words were manipulated according to two factors: word frequency (high vs. low) and syllable frequency (high vs. low). It has been repeatedly found that words with high-frequency syllables require extra time for deactivating the lexical syllabic neighbors: the so-called inhibitory effect of positional frequency syllable (Carreiras et al., J Mem Lang 32:766–780, 1993). We hypothesized that dyslexic readers would show a stronger inhibitory effect than normal readers because they are slower decoders and they may also be slower at the activation and inhibition of word representations that are competing (i.e., syllabic candidates). Results indicated an interaction between word and syllable frequency (i.e., a strong inhibitory effect was found in the low-frequency word condition). According to our hypothesis, the inhibitory effect size was almost three times bigger in dyslexics than in the normal readers. This difference shows an alteration, not a developmental lag. Interestingly, the inhibitory effect size did not interact with school grade. Thus, reading experience did not impact the lexical processes involved on the inhibitory effect. Our outcomes showed how activation and/or inhibition of lexical processes can contribute to the lack of speed beyond decoding deficit.     

Small Talk: Children’s Everyday ‘Molecule’ Ideas

This paper reports on 6–11-year-old children’s ‘sayings and doings’ (Harré 2002) as they explore molecule artefacts in dialectical-interactive teaching interviews (Fleer, Cultural Studies of Science Education 3:781–786, 2008; Hedegaard et al. 2008). This sociocultural study was designed to explore children’s everyday awareness of and meaning-making with cultural molecular artefacts. Our everyday world is populated with an ever increasing range of molecular or nanoworld words, symbols, images, and games. What do children today say about these artefacts that are used to represent molecular world entities? What are the material and social resources that can influence a child’s everyday and developing scientific ideas about ‘molecules’? How do children interact with these cognitive tools when given expert assistance? What meaning-making is afforded when children are socially and materially assisted in using molecular tools in early chemical and nanoworld thinking? Tool-dependent discursive studies show that provision of cultural artefacts can assist and direct developmental thinking across many domains of science (Schoultz et al., Human Development 44:103–118, 2001; Siegal 2008). Young children’s use of molecular artefacts as cognitive tools has not received much attention to date (Jakab 2009a, b). This study shows 6–11-year-old children expressing everyday ideas of molecular artefacts and raising their own questions about the artefacts. They are seen beginning to domesticate (Erneling 2010) the words, symbols, and images to their own purposes when given the opportunity to interact with such artefacts in supported activity. Discursive analysis supports the notion that using ‘molecules’ as cultural tools can help young children to begin ‘putting on molecular spectacles’ (Kind 2004). Playing with an interactive game (ICT) is shown to be particularly helpful in assisting children’s early meaning-making with representations of molecules, atoms, and their chemical symbols.     

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.     

Orthographic learning in Spanish children

In order to read fluently, children have to form orthographic representations. Despite numerous investigations, there is no clear answer to the question of the number of times they need to read a word to form an orthographic representation. We used length effect on reading times as a measure, because there are large differences between long and short words for unknown words, differences that disappear when reading frequent words. Two lists of new words (half short and half long) were presented to 102 second‐grade to sixth‐grade Spanish children, to be read aloud six times. One of the lists was presented as part of a story and the other in isolation. Comparison of the length effect at the first and sixth exposure showed large differences between short and long words in the first presentation and small differences at the sixth presentation, indicating that Spanish children develop representations of words after just a few repetitions.     

Reading strategies in Spanish developmental dyslexics

Cross-linguistic studies suggest that the orthographic system determines the reading performance of dyslexic children. In opaque orthographies, the fundamental feature of developmental dyslexia is difficulty in reading accuracy, whereas slower reading speed is more common in transparent orthographies. The aim of the current study was to examine the extent to which different variables of words affect reaction times and articulation times in developmental dyslexics. A group of 19 developmental dyslexics of different ages and an age-matched group of 19 children without reading disabilities completed a word naming task. The children were asked to read 100 nouns that differed in length, frequency, age of acquisition, imageability, and orthographic neighborhood. The stimuli were presented on a laptop computer, and the responses were recorded using DMDX software. We conducted analyses of mixed-effects models to determine which variables influenced reading times in dyslexic children. We found that word naming skills in dyslexic children are affected predominantly by length, while in non-dyslexics children the principal variable is the age of acquisition, a lexical variable. These findings suggest that Spanish-speaking developmental dyslexics use a sublexical procedure for reading words, which is reflected in slower speed when reading long words. In contrast, normal children use a lexical strategy, which is frequently observed in readers of opaque languages.     

Identification of sub-types of students with learning disabilities in reading and its implications for Chinese word recognition and instructional methods in Hong Kong primary schools

This paper consists of three studies. The first study aimed to identify sub-types of students with learning disabilities in reading. Based on the dual-route model of reading, words may be read using either a lexical (words are recognized as wholes) or a sub-lexical (words are recognized through grapheme-phoneme correspondence) procedure. Castles and Coltheart (1993) provided evidence for the existence of these two mechanisms in English reading. They suggested that deficits in one and/or the other mechanism would lead to different patterns of reading disability. Surface dyslexia results from an impairment of the lexical procedure with an intact phonological route to reading. Phonological dyslexia results from a deficit in the grapheme-phoneme transformation mechanism. A higher percentage of surface dyslexia was identified in the present study. The aim of the second study was to analyze reading errors to support the existence of surface and phonological dyslexic patterns in Chinese reading. The results showed that students with surface dyslexic pattern made more phonological errors, whereas students with phonological dyslexic pattern made more semantic errors. These two studies indicate that students with learning disabilities could have different strengths and weaknesses and could have different preferences for recognizing Chinese characters and different responses to instructional methods. The third study was designed to test the effects of different teaching methods and different kinds of Chinese characters on students with learning disabilities. In general, the analytic method was found more effective for students with surface dyslexic pattern and the whole-word method for those with the phonological dyslexic pattern. The findings of this study showed the importance of identifying the strengths of the different sub-types of readers and the need to choose appropriate instructional methods accordingly.     

Fluency Transfer: Differential Gains in Reading Speed and Accuracy Following Isolated Word and Context Training

While fluent reading is recognized as a primary goal of educational instruction, the methods that best promote the development of fluency remain unclear. Two experiments are reported that examined increases in reading fluency of a novel passage following two types of training. In the context training condition, children learned to read a set of target words in a story context, while in the isolated word training condition, fluency with a target word set was gained from a computerized word naming game. Transfer of fluency to reading these words in a new context was then measured by gains in reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension of a novel story. Results indicated that young readers showed speed benefits on transfer stories following both context and isolated word training, but the increases were larger following context training.     

The double deficit hypothesis in the transparent Finnish orthography: a longitudinal study from kindergarten to Grade 2

We examined the double deficit hypothesis (Wolf & Bowers, 1999) and literacy development in a longitudinal dataset of 1,006 Finnish children who were nonreaders at school entry. A single phonological awareness (PA) deficit was a predictor of pseudoword spelling accuracy and reading fluency, and a single rapid automatized naming (RAN) deficit was a predictor of reading fluency. The group with both PA and RAN deficits experienced the most extensive reading and spelling difficulties. However, all groups included both poor and average Grade 2 readers and spellers. Poor letter knowledge and vocabulary, task avoidance, attention difficulties, hyperactivity, and lack of teaching at home were additional risk factors for reading and spelling problems, but their impact varied depending on the presence of PA and RAN deficits.     

Children’s orthographic representations in English and Greek

Two experiments were conducted to compare the development of orthographic representations in children learning to read English and Greek. Nonsense words that either shared both orthography and phonology at the level of the rhyme with real words (comic-bomic), phonology only (comic-bommick), or neither (dilotaff) were created for each orthography. Experiment 1 compared children’s reading of bisyllabic and trisyllabic nonsense words likebomic vs.bommick, taffodil vs.tafoddyl, and found a significant facilitatory effect of orthographic rhyme familiarity for English only. Experiment 2 compared children’s reading of trisyllabic nonsense words that either shared rhyme phonology with real words (tafoddyl) or did not (dilotaff). Significant facilitation in reading accuracy was found for shared rhyme phonology in English, with a significant speed advantage in Greek. These results are interpreted in terms of the level of phonology that is represented in the orthographic recognition units being developed by children who are learning to read more and less transparent orthographies.     

Word reading fluency: A transfer appropriate processing account of fluency transfer

Word reading fluency, as indexed by the fast and accurate identification of single words, predicts both general reading ability and reading comprehension. This study compared the effects of context training and isolated word training on subsequent measures of word reading fluency. Good and poor readers were given 12 repetitions of two sets of words; 48 new words were learned in each condition. Words were presented in a story during context training and on a computer screen during isolated word training. Target words were read in isolation at test, randomly displayed within a series containing 72 untrained words. Results show that words trained in isolation are remembered longer and read faster when presented in isolation at test compared to words trained in context. Theoretical implications are discussed in relation to transfer appropriate processing.     

Correlates of orthographic learning in third‐grade children's silent reading

This study examined word identification, phonological recoding efficiency, familiar word reading efficiency, orthographic choice for familiar words and serial naming speed as potential correlates of orthographic learning following silent reading in third‐grade children. Children silently read a series of short stories, each containing six repetitions of a different target non‐word. They subsequently read target non‐words faster than homophones and preferred target non‐words to homophones in an orthographic choice task, indicating that they had formed functional orthographic representations of the target non‐words through phonologically recoding them during silent story reading. Target non‐word orthographic choice was correlated with all measures bar non‐symbol naming speed. The association between phonological recoding efficiency and orthographic learning lends support to the hypothesis that self‐teaching occurs through phonological recoding even in silent reading. Our findings were not generally consistent with the view that serial naming speed assesses orthographic learning aptitude.     

Eye movements of university students with and without reading difficulties during naming speed tasks

Although naming speed (NS) has been shown to predict reading into adulthood and differentiate between adult dyslexics and controls, the question remains why NS is related to reading. To address this question, eye movement methodology was combined with three letter NS tasks (the original letter NS task by Denckla & Rudel, Cortex 10:186–202, 1974, and two more developed by Compton, The Journal of Special Education 37:81–94, 2003, with increased phonological or visual similarity of the letters). Twenty undergraduate students with reading difficulties (RD) and 27 without (NRD) were tested on letter NS tasks (eye movements were recorded during the NS tasks), phonological processing, and reading fluency. The results indicated first that the RD group was slower than the NRD group on all NS tasks with no differences between the NS tasks. In addition, the NRD group had shorter fixation durations, longer saccades, and fewer saccades and fixations than the RD group. Fixation duration and fixation count were significant predictors of reading fluency even after controlling for phonological processing measures. Taken together, these findings suggest that the NS–reading relationship is due to two factors: less able readers require more time to acquire stimulus information during fixation and they make more saccades.     

Improving the writing and knowledge of emergent writers: the effects of self-regulated strategy development

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of implementing the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model of instruction (Graham & Harris, 2005; Harris & Graham, 1996) on the writing skills and knowledge of six first grade students. A multiple-baseline design across participants with multiple probes (Kazdin, 2010) was used to test the effectiveness of the SRSD intervention, which included story writing and self-regulation strategy instruction. All students wrote stories in response to picture prompts during the baseline, instruction, post-instruction, and maintenance phases and stories were assessed for essential story components, length, and overall quality. Participants also participated in brief interviews during the baseline and post-instruction phases. Results indicated that SRSD can be beneficial for first grade writers. Participants wrote stories that contained more essential components, were longer, and of better quality after SRSD instruction. Participants also showed improvement in writing knowledge from pre- to post-instruction.     

Spelling development in Arabic as a foreign language among native Hebrew speaking pupils

It has been suggested that linguistic proximity affects the ease of acquisition between typologically similar languages, due to the fact that the languages have shared phonological and orthographic properties (Koda, 2008). Thus, a native Hebrew speaker learning Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) would be expected to easily develop linguistic proficiency. This study examined the developmental trajectory for spelling in AFL among native Hebrew speaking adolescents, with specific attention to the development of accurate representations for four novel phonemes and their graphic symbols ( ). The sample included eighth (N = 119), ninth (N = 125), and tenth graders (N = 91). We were further interested in examining the contribution of orthographic as opposed to phonological knowledge to spelling in AFL. Five experimental tasks were created for the study: real word recognition, orthographic sensitivity, auditory discrimination, and dictation of real and pseudowords. Findings for the eighth grade replicated earlier findings for real word spelling (Fragman & Russak, 2010) showing 20 % accuracy scores. While spelling accuracy improved by tenth grade, scores remained extremely low (25 %). Lexical representations for the four novel phonemes tested were also generally low, with different levels of accuracy for each phoneme. It is possible that the difficulties were the result of interference from shared linguistic elements. Finally, it was found that both orthographic as well as phonological knowledge contribute to real and pseudoword spelling. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to language teaching policy and pedagogy.     

The ABC’s of Chinese: maternal mediation of Pinyin for Chinese children’s early literacy skills

In the present study, maternal Pinyin mediation and its relations with young Chinese children??s word reading and word writing development were explored. At time 1, 43 Mainland Chinese children and their mothers were videotaped on a task in which children were asked to write 12 words in Pinyin (a phonological coding system used in Mainland China as an aid to reading Chinese characters) with help from their mothers. The videotapes were later coded on a scale (adapted from Aram & Levin, 2001) of mothers?? writing facilitation techniques. Scores on this scale of maternal mediation of Pinyin uniquely explained children??s reading of Chinese words, but not writing of Chinese words, after statistically controlling for maternal education and age, and children??s non-verbal IQ, age, and phonological awareness. At time 2, 22 of the children from time 1 were further tested on Chinese word reading and word reading task 1?year later. After controlling for children??s age and non-verbal IQ, maternal Pinyin mediation uniquely explained 6% of the variance in children??s word writing and 7% of the variance in children??s word reading performance at time 2. Results underscore the potential importance of the maternal scaffolding role for reading acquisition both theoretically and practically in a domain not previously explored (i.e., use of a common coding system (Pinyin) for learning to read, rather than word reading itself).     

Thirty Years in the Storm: Leadership at an African-Centered School

For most Americans, access to a quality education has always been perceived as the fundamental link to upward mobility and increased life chances within our society (Ballantine and Hammack in The sociology of education: a systematic analysis. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, 2011; Brown et al. 2010; Holyfield 2002). This perception of the role of education has been particularly salient for African American people. From the beginning of their experiences in America, the African American community creatively established schools for their children (Anderson in The education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1988). Even during the enslavement of the majority of African people in this country, they would often risk their lives in the effort to learn to read and write (Douglass and Stepto in Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2009). Subsequently this rich history, along with the continued presence of inequities and underachievement in the public schools became the undergirding impetus for the development of independent Black schools within the African American communities around the nation beginning in the early 1960’s. Through the years, many of these schools have waged a fervent battle to remain operating. In spite of difficulties with various factors such as, finances, facilities location and maintenance, as well as an unstable teaching force, the leaders who founded these institutions remain committed to the education of African American children. Currently, there is a paucity of research on the founders of these independent Black schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the educational philosophy and strategies which guided the decision-making process of the founder of an independent Black school.     

Analyzing the teaching of advanced mathematics courses via the enacted example space

Examples are believed to be very important in developing conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas, useful both in mathematics research and instruction (Bills & Watson in Educational Studies in Mathematics 69:77–79, 2008; Mason & Watson, 2008; Bills & Tall, 1998; Tall & Vinner, 1981). In this study, we draw on the concept of an example space (Mason & Watson, 2008) and variation theory (Runesson in Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 50:397–410, 2006) to create a lens to study how examples are used for pedagogical purposes in undergraduate proof-based instruction. We adapted the construct of an example space and extended its application to the constructs of example neighborhood, methods of example construction, and the functions of examples. We explained how to use our new lens to analyze the collection of examples and non-examples that the students had access to. We then demonstrate our method by analyzing the collection of examples and non-examples of a mathematical group the professor of an abstract algebra class presented during lectures or assigned to students in problem sets or exams.     

DEVELOPING AN UNDERSTANDING OF IONS IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL CHEMISTRY

There is growing research interest in the challenges and opportunities learners face in representing scientific understandings, processes and reasoning. These challenges include integrating verbal, visual and mathematical modes in science discourse to make strong conceptual links between representations and classroom experiences. Our paper reports on a project that aimed to identify practical and theoretical issues entailed in a representation-intensive approach to guiding students’ conceptual learning in science. We focus here on a teacher developing students’ understanding of the formation of ions and molecules. We argue that the representations produced by students in this process met the criteria for representational competence proposed by diSessa (Cognition and Instruction, 22, 293–331, 2004) and Kozma & Russell (2005). The students understood that an effective representation needed to show relevant information, focus on pertinent points, be self-sufficient in its claims about the topic and provide coherent links between different parts of the representation. The final activity showed that their representations reached Kozma & Russell’s (2005) highest level of competence, where the students were able to use specific features of their representations to critique their suitability for explaining bonding and were able to show how their representation linked to the periodic table as a representation. We conclude by considering the implications of these findings.