Phonology constrains the internal orthographic representation

Four experiments explored the composition and stability of internalorthographic representations of printed words. In three experiments,subjects were presented on successive occasions with words that wereconsistently spelled correctly or were consistently misspelled. On thesecond presentation, subjects were more likely to judge both kinds ofwords as correctly spelled than on the first presentation, suggesting thattheir preexperimental orthographic representations had been altered tomatch what they had seen on the first presentation. However, onlymisspellings that were consistent with the correct phonology wereaccepted; spellings that altered the phonology were rarely accepted,suggesting that some parts of the orthographic representation are lessstable than others. Also, subjects' reliance on orthographic vs.phonological memory when judging a word's spelling was affected by thekinds of other misspellings in the list. Lists that contained somephonologically implausible spellings for real words (e.g., *assostance)induced subjects to rely more on phonological plausibility when judgingthe correctness of other words in the list and less on orthographic memory.An individual grapheme in an internal orthographic representation wasunstable when there were many phonologically acceptable alternatives forit. The results are contrary to the view that the strength of an internalrepresentation is uniform across all its graphemes and is a function only ofvisual experience with the printed form. Results were interpreted in thecontext of a theory that considers spelling knowledge to be a by-productof the reading process, a process that involves phonological analysis.     

Spelling acquisition of novel English phonemes in Chinese children

This two-year, longitudinal study compared thespelling development of two novel Englishphonemes (// and //) among 35Cantonese-speaking primary level childrenlearning English as a second language (ESL) and37 English-speaking (L1) children.Developmental trend analyses suggest a similardevelopmental trajectory of spelling levelsacross time for ESL and L1 children. However,the spelling errors of the Chinese ESL childrenreflected difficulty in representing phonemesthat are absent in Cantonese phonology, andthis difficulty is not merely at theorthographic level. Poor phonologicalrepresentation of the phoneme // of ESLchildren was also reflected in an auditorydiscrimination task. Nevertheless, thisnegative transfer did not persist across time.By the time they reached the end of grade 2,the performance of ESL children was very closeto that of L1 children. A causal relationshipis shown via cross-lagged correlations betweenauditory discrimination and spellingperformance for both L1 and ESL children. Theseresults suggest an interactive relationshipbetween a general development of phonologicaland orthographic knowledge and an L1 transfereffect in second language spellingacquisition.     

Spanish-speaking children’s spelling errors with English vowel sounds that are represented by different graphemes in English and Spanish words

Vowels in Spanish have direct one-to-one letter-sound correspondences, whereas vowels in English usually have multiple spellings. For native Spanish-speaking children learning to spell in English, this transition from a shallow to a deep orthography could potentially cause difficulties. We examined whether the spelling of English vowel sounds was particularly difficult for native Spanish-speaking children, and whether the errors are consistent with Spanish orthographic rules. Twenty-six native Spanish-speaking and 53 native English-speaking children in grades 2 and 3 were given real-word and pseudoword spelling tasks in English that included words containing four vowels that have different spellings between Spanish and English. Results supported our hypothesis—native Spanish-speaking children committed significantly more vowel spelling errors that were consistent with Spanish orthography. The number of vowel spelling errors not consistent with Spanish orthography did not differ between the two language groups. These findings suggest that orthographic properties of the children’s native language influence their learning to spell in a second language. Educational implications address how knowledge of this cross language influence can aide teachers in improving spelling instruction.     

Pinch my wig or winch my pig: Spelling,spoonerisms and other language skills

Phonological processing skills have often been assumed to play a minimal role in skilled adult spelling despite evidence showing their importance in the development of spelling skills. The present study investigated the relationship between phonological awareness and spelling in adults. It was hypothesised that subjects demonstrating higher levels of spelling proficiency would also show superior phonological processing skills. This relationship was expected to be mediated by sound-spelling mapping knowledge. Given the irregularities of sound-spelling correspondences in English, it was also predicted that knowledge of orthographic conventions would be related to spelling competency. Two measures of each component skill were used on seventy three university students. As predicted, the importance of spelling-sound mapping skills in spelling were demonstrated, as was a relationship between phonological awareness and spelling-sound correspondences. In addition a moderate correlation was found between orthographic tasks and spelling performance. It was concluded that, among university students at least, phonological ability makes an important contribution to skilled adult spelling.     

少数民族学生汉字学习与正字法

汉字是汉语的书写符号系统。少数民族学生学习汉语时,汉字学习是一大难题。论文通过对少数民族学生的作业、听写、作文等语料进行调查分析,探讨学生在汉字学习中产生的书写偏误及其与正字法的关系,以求进一步解决汉字教学中的一些问题。     

Invented spelling in kindergarten: The relationship with finger-point reading

The relationship between ability to invent spellings and ability to finger-point read memorized text was examined in 109 kindergartners in whole-language classrooms. It was hypothesized that letter name knowledge and phonemic awareness would account for ability in finger-point reading, but that invented spelling, because it requires the left-to-right alphabetic principle as well, would account for additional variance, and this turned out to be the case. It was also hypothesized that although initial phoneme spellings would be easier than those in other positions, and would be a factor in the voice-print match in finger-point reading, final phonemes would also play a significant role. This turned out to be the case for children who were able to read only a word or two, as well as for more capable beginners. Results were consistent with Ehri's (1992) model of phonetic-cue sight reading in which letters are utilized from both initial and final positions.     

Spelling errors in Spanish

The main purpose of this paper was to see whether dual-route models of spelling, developed within the context of opaque languages and supported mainly by the spelling patterns of acquired dysgraphics, could account for the misspellings of Spanish children of different educational levels. Sixty children (20 second, 20 fourth and 20 eighth graders) were dictated 216 verbal stimuli. Half of these stimuli were words and the other half were matched nonwords. The dependent variable was the number of errors made. Words were controlled for frequency, length and regularity. Results show that second graders rely heavily on phonological mediation with:

Visual and auditory priming influences the production of low-frequency spellings

Three experiments investigated whether production of low-frequency spellings could be influenced by other words containing those spellings. Participants saw visually-presented primes (Experiment 1) or heard primes presented auditorily and produced their spelling (Experiments 2 and 3). Primes either shared both orthography and phonology (e.g., chapl ai n) or only orthography (e.g., ord ai n) with the target word (e.g., porcel ai n). Following the primes, participants attempted to produce the correct spellings of auditorily-presented target words containing low-frequency spellings, such as the ai in porcelain. Participants correctly spelled the targets’ low-frequency spelling more often when preceded by either type of prime, relative to unprimed targets. Furthermore, priming only occurred when the prime’s spelling was produced correctly; primes spelled incorrectly reduced the correct production of target spellings. These results suggest that unlike the priming of nonwords, the basis of lexical priming of real words is orthographic, resulting from the priming of specific graphemes that increases the probability of reactivating the same spelling pattern in the target.

Little Frog and Toad: Interaction of orthography and phonology in Polish spelling

The interaction of lexical and non-lexicalprocesses in spelling was investigated throughlexical priming of non-lexical spelling, inPolish, a language in whose relativelytransparent orthography lexical informationmight be expected to play a less influentialrole than in English. Orthographic choice fornonwords was assessed under free and primedspelling conditions for both adults andchildren using direct and associative priming.The findings indicated that lexical orthographyinfluences resolution of nonlexical phonologyin spelling and identified two sources ofinfluence: one in unprimed spelling, wherelong-standing orthographic knowledge affectednonword orthographic choice so that it was notdetermined solely by phonology, the other inprimed spelling, where orthographic solutionsto nonwords were influenced by the covertorthography of the prime. The most powerfulevidence for lexical influence comes from thefinding that lexical orthography not onlyinforms resolution of phonology in cases ofambiguity, but overrides phonology whenresolution is unambiguous.     

Morphological,phonological, and orthographic differences between the spelling of normally achieving children and basic literacy adults

In this study, we compared 41 adults in a basic literacy class with 92 achievement-level-matched children on their use of English print conventions, as inferred by a qualitative analysis of spelling errors. The two groups followed similar patterns in their mastery of basic spelling features, including letter reversals, consonant blends, and short vowels, with the adults showing relatively more advanced skill in using orthographic patterns. However, the adults made a preponderance of misspellings that were rarely made by the children, including omissions, substitutions, and additions of derivational and inflectional morphemes, and neglect of word endings in general. The findings indicate clear morphological difficulties along with more subtle phonological coding deficits. We suggest that low literacy adults would benefit from specific direct instruction in linguistic analysis, with particular attention to the morphological principles underlying inflections and derivations. Such instruction should be based on a careful assessment of reading and spelling knowledge.     

The contribution of orthographic and phonological processes to word reading in young Norwegian readers

The dissociation between phonological and orthographic processes in word reading was investigated in a study involving 147 children in grade 3. The criterion measure was a timed word reading test. Two tasks assessed phonological skills and two tasks assessed orthographical skills. Orthographic ability accounted for variance in word reading even after phonological ability had been controlled. Poor readers differed from skilled readers in the way phonological and orthographic factors were balanced. The relationship between the two factors was fairly strong among poor readers, whereas the correlation was low for more skilled readers. Furthermore, phonological factors played a much stronger role in explaining the variance in word reading among poor readers, while on the other hand, orthographic factors were more powerful among skilled readers.     

The role of orthographic flexibility in Chinese word reading among kindergarten children

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine the potential importance of orthographic flexibility for Chinese reading acquisition. Orthographic flexibility is a novel concept that represents the ability to manage and switch attention among multiple aspects of orthographic information. A total of 92 Chinese kindergarten children at age 6 were assessed on measures of orthographic flexibility, orthographic knowledge, executive functions (EF) skills (i.e. cognitive flexibility and working memory) and Chinese word reading. Results of hierarchical regressions showed that orthographic flexibility uniquely and significantly contributed to word reading beyond the effects of established predictors, namely orthographic knowledge and EF skills. Path analysis further indicated that orthographic flexibility significantly mediated the contribution of EF skills to word reading. These findings provided theoretical insights into the linkage between domain-general EF skills and domain-specific reading ability. The present study also provided practical implication that training on orthographic flexibility in addition to orthographic knowledge could be beneficial to early acquisition of Chinese word reading.     

Reading and spelling development in Brazilian Portuguese

This paper describes the development of reading and spelling procedures in Portuguese speaking children from 1st to 4th grade and discusses whether the developmental models of Frith, Seymour and Stuart & Coltheart may account for this development. This study is based on reaction time and error measurements of the reading and spelling of isolated words and pseudowords. The words varied in frequency, length and spelling-to-sound-regularity and the non-words varied only in length and spelling-to-sound regularity. The results indicated that the children tested did not pass through a logographic stage and that their reading and spelling initially involved a non-lexical process which from the beginning was influenced by a developing lexical process (that became progressively more important as development progressed), suggesting the use of overlapping processes. This finding contradicts Frith's strictly sequential theory but not Seymour's model, which allows for concurrent development of processes. Despite the fact that the present data do not fit into the definition of Seymour's orthographic stage, there were indications of a shift from the alphabetic to the orthographic stage and also that the process of lexicalization occurs more rapidly in reading than in spelling. Another finding was that the dual-process reading/spelling model, developed in English, can be extended to Portuguese.     

The relationship between linguistic characteristics and reading/writing performances of Norwegian children

The relations between different word categories and children's reading and writing performances were examined in twenty 9-year-old children. Results indicated for Norwegian, which is more regular than English but less regular than Finnish, that the length and the frequency of words and their interactions are factors substantially related both to children's reading, writing time (writing velocity), and spelling performances, whereas the regularity factor affected children's spelling only. Significant intercorrelations among reading and writing (accuracy and spelling) measures were found.     

Multiple orthographic codes in reading and writing acquisition

A modified Stroop Test (single-letter, letter-cluster, and whole-word colorinconsistent stimuli) showed greater interference for the more automatic orthographic coding unit—the word—than for the less automatic coding units—single letters and letter-clusters—in developing readers in second, fourth, and sixth grade (N=72, Study 1). A developmental trend was observed from relative skill in word-level orthographic-phonological correspondence in second graders to relative skill in subword level orthographic-phonological correspondences in sixth graders. A previous finding that whole word coding > letter coding > letter cluster coding in relative rate of development was replicated (N=300, Study 2). Multiple orthographic codes—for whole words, single letters, and letter clusters—were correlated with both reading and writing but patterns of correlations with the component reading and writing skills changed from first to third grade; by third grade whole word coding was not correlated with reading and writing skills but letter cluster coding was correlated with all reading and most writing skills. Cue validity —categorization of letters on the basis of differentiating rather than distinctive features—improved from second to sixth grade and may account for developmental gains in letter cluster coding. Level of cue validity was correlated with speed of sentence comprehension (N=60, Study 3). The theoretical and practical significance of multiple orthographic codes for orthographic-phonological connections in word recognition and for literacy acquisition in general is discussed.This research was supported, in part, by Grant No. 25858-01 awarded to the first author from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.Study 1 is based on a presentation at the 1990 meeting of the American Education Research Association. Study 2 is based on a presentation at the 1991 meeting of the American Education Research Association. Study 3 is based on a presentation at the 1989 meeting of the American Education Research Association.The authors thank the participating children from the Shoreline Public Schools (Study 1), Bellevue, Northshore and Seattle Public Schools (Study 2), and the Mukiteo Public Schools (Study 3). They also thank Sylvia Mirsepassi for secretarial assistance.     

从对CLEC的分析看不同年级英语学习者的拼写错误

拼写错误随学习的语音、词汇、语法水平和拼写策略不同而变化。典型与发音关联的辅音错误、非重读央元音错误有随年级上升而下降的趋势，表明拼写错误受发音失误影响的程度随年级上升而降低。字母顺序错误、同音异形词错误的减少以及构词型错误、生造词的增加则反映出拼写策略的改变。     

Linguistic awareness skills in grade one children in a French immersion setting

This study examined the ability of children in French immersion and English programs to analyze the internal structure of spoken words in relation to their early reading and spelling abilities in English. Thirty-two children in the first grade were given a modified version of the Auditory Analysis Test, and reading and spelling tasks that included both real words and non-words. Results indicated that French immersion children were more proficient than their English program peers at explicitly analyzing spoken words and that the groups did not differ when reading and spelling orthographically regular real words and non-words. The English program children performed better than their French program peers only when reading orthographically irregular English words. These results demonstrate that second language learning enhances metalinguistic awareness and help to explain why children in immersion programs do not experience long-term difficulty in acquiring English written language skills.     

Development of phonological, morphological, and orthographic knowledge in young spellers: The case of inflected verbs

This study was designed to simultaneously investigate the influence of phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness skills on the ability to spell inflected verbs in structured spelling tasks. Children in grades 1, 2, and 3 (n=103) spelled inflected past and progressive tense verbs and completed awareness tasks. Developmental changes occurred in the ability to include the inflected ending, to spell the ending consistently reflecting the correct morphological unit, and to affix the ending using the correct orthographic pattern. The contributions of phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness to spelling development varied across the three grades but were similar for each sub-component, suggesting a developmental relationship between the ability to spell inflected verbs and linguistic and orthographic awareness.