Development of letter position processing: effects of age and orthographic transparency

This study investigated the relative extent to which developing readers (6‐ and 9‐year‐olds) of English (deep) or Greek (transparent) orthography exhibit serial and exterior letter effects in letter position encoding. Participants were given a visual search task that required detection of a pre‐specified target letter within a random five‐letter string. Stimuli comprised letters either specific to English or Greek, or shared by both orthographies. For native letters, all readers showed significant initial‐letter facilitation. In contrast, final‐letter facilitation was shown only by English children. Furthermore, Greek 9‐year‐olds showed significantly more left‐to‐right facilitation than English 9‐year‐olds. These results suggest that letter position encoding is adaptive to the nature of the orthography acquired during reading development.     

Letter Names and Alphabet Book Reading by Senior Kindergarteners: An Eye Movement Study

The study monitored the eye movements of twenty 5‐year‐old children while reading an alphabet book to examine the manner in which the letters, words, and pictures were fixated and the relation of attention to print to alphabetic knowledge. Children attended little to the print, took longer to first fixate print than illustrations, and labeled fewer letters than when presented with letters in isolation. After controlling for receptive vocabulary, regressions revealed that children knowing more letters were quicker to look at the featured letter on a page and spent more time looking at the featured letter, the word, and its first letter. Thus, alphabet books along with letter knowledge may facilitate entrance into the partial alphabetic stage of word recognition.     

Special education in Swedish and Finnish schools: seeing the forest or the trees?

The purpose of this research was to study the content of the work of two special education professions in Sweden, special teachers and special pedagogues. In addition, we compare their work to the work of Finnish special teachers. The Swedish participants were 74 special educators: 27 special teachers and 47 special pedagogues. The Finnish data were from an earlier study, involving 133 special teachers. Participants in both countries were approached via a questionnaire. The results show that Swedish special pedagogues do more consultative work and Swedish special teachers more direct work with pupils. However, there is plenty of overlap in the work profiles of Swedish special pedagogues and special teachers. Most of the work content is in line with the Finnish findings, except that Finnish special teachers had a minor consultative role. It seems that the work duties across the two professions, special pedagogues and special teachers, are somewhat similar. Their ways of working in practice are discussed.     

Visual–motor symbol production facilitates letter recognition in young children

Previous research has suggested that handwriting letters may be an important exerciser to facilitate early letter understanding. Experimental studies to date, however, have not investigated whether this effect is general to any visual–motor experience or specific to handwriting letters. In the present work, we addressed this issue by testing letter knowledge using three measures in preschool children before and after a school-based intervention. Participants were divided into four training groups (letter-writing, digit-writing, letter-viewing, digit-viewing) that either wrote letters or digits or viewed letters or digits, twice a week for 6 weeks. We hypothesized that the visual–motor experience of handwriting letters or digits would improve letter knowledge more than viewing experience and that this effect would not be specific to training with letters. Our results demonstrated that the writing groups improved in letter recognition—one component of letter knowledge—significantly more than the viewing groups. The letter-writing group did not improve significantly more than the digit-writing group. These results suggest that visual–motor practice with any symbol could lead to increases in letter recognition. We interpret this novel finding as suggesting that any handwriting will increase letter recognition in part because it facilitates gains in visual–motor coordination.     

Dissociations between serial position and number of letters effects in lateralised visual word recognition

Some previous studies of visual word recognition have reported an interaction between visual field and word length (measured by number of letters), such that recognition is affected more by word length for words presented in the left than for words presented in the right visual field. However, when manipulating serial position of letters in words to measure length effects, there are also reports of symmetrical word length effects in the two visual fields. Here we report two experiments, presenting four‐ and seven‐letter words, suggesting that the serial position and length effects in the hemispheres are separable and task dependent. For tasks that rely more heavily on letter‐level processing such as letter search (Experiment 1), performance in both hemifields showed similar effects of serial position; however, when comparing four‐ and seven‐letter words, an effect of word length was evident only in the left visual field, in line with the well‐established interaction between word length and hemifield. An interaction between word length and hemifield was confirmed for the same stimuli when they were employed in a lexical decision task, which forced whole‐word processing (Experiment 2). We conclude that the effects of serial position and number of letters in the two visual fields are separable, and are selectively affected by task type.     

The Influence of Reading Expertise in Mirror‐Letter Perception: Evidence From Beginning and Expert Readers

The visual word recognition system recruits neuronal systems originally developed for object perception which are characterized by orientation insensitivity to mirror reversals. It has been proposed that during reading acquisition beginning readers have to “unlearn” this natural tolerance to mirror reversals in order to efficiently discriminate letters and words. Therefore, it is supposed that this unlearning process takes place in a gradual way and that reading expertise modulates mirror‐letter discrimination. However, to date no supporting evidence for this has been obtained. We present data from an eye‐movement study that investigated the degree of sensitivity to mirror‐letters in a group of beginning readers and a group of expert readers. Participants had to decide which of the two strings presented on a screen corresponded to an auditorily presented word. Visual displays always included the correct target word and one distractor word. Results showed that those distractors that were the same as the target word except for the mirror lateralization of two internal letters attracted participants' attention more than distractors created by replacement of 2 internal letters. Interestingly, the time course of the effects was found to be different for the 2 groups, with beginning readers showing a greater tolerance (decreased sensitivity) to mirror‐letters than expert readers. Implications of these findings are discussed within the framework of preceding evidence showing how reading expertise modulates letter identification.     

Letter knowledge precipitates phoneme segmentation,but not phoneme invariance

There is a wealth of evidence linking letter knowledge and phoneme awareness, but there is little research examining the nature of this relationship. This article aims to elucidate this relationship by considering the links between letter knowledge and two sub‐skills of phoneme awareness: phoneme segmentation and phoneme invariance. Two studies are reported. The first study consisted of an eight‐month longitudinal study with 56 pre‐literate children. No child within this group was successful on any phoneme awareness task unless they knew at least one letter. Letter knowledge was also a significant predictor of later phoneme completion and deletion. The hypothesis that letter knowledge is an important precursor for phoneme awareness was then investigated in a small‐scale intervention study with ten children. These children were taught letters and their phoneme awareness was monitored. It was found that letter knowledge was specifically related to the development of phoneme segmentation in pre‐literate children. Possible reasons for this finding are discussed.     

Visual‐attentional span and lexical ­decision in skilled adult readers

The goal of the study was to examine the association between visual‐attentional span and lexical decision in skilled adult readers. In the span tasks, an array of letters was presented briefly and recognition or production of a single cued letter (partial span) or production of all letters (whole span) was required. Independently of letter recognition and phoneme awareness, width of partial recognition span predicted substantial variance only in detection of letter misorderings in words, while partial span efficiency made small contributions to decisions on regular words and pseudowords, but not strange words. With a production format and the inclusion of short‐term phonological memory, neither partial‐span nor whole‐span measures contributed positive independent variance to word and nonword decisions. The results provide meagre support for the idea that skilled adult readers with a wide visual‐attentional span might process words more effectively than those with a narrow span during lexical decision.     

The Scaffolding of Emergent Literacy Skills in the Home Environment: A Case Study

The ways in which parent-child interactions can encourage the development of emergent literacy skills in young children remains to be fully explored. The present report describes how one parent scaffolded her young child’s emergent writing and letter knowledge in the home. Environmental print provided many rich and meaningful examples for the parent to show that print conveys meaning and is constructed with letters that have names and make sounds. The parent used idiomorphs, a multisensory approach incorporating the tracing of letters and whole body movements, and common household objects to guide the child’s learning of letter names, sounds, and shapes. Emergent writing skills were scaffolded by using directional language and by the child copying environmental print. The strategies and examples that are described may give guidance to parents and teachers on how to provide engaging opportunities for literacy learning in the home environment or in an early educational context.     

Spongelike acquisition of sight vocabulary in beginning readers?

We report two training studies designed to investigate the relation between phonological awareness, sound‐to‐letter mapping knowledge, and printed word learning in novice five‐year‐old readers. Effects of visual memory and of teaching methods are also explored. In our first study, novice five‐year‐old readers able to segment initial phonemes and with good knowledge of mappings between sounds and letters learned words more easily from repeated exposure to texts. Results suggested that visual memory influenced word learning in non‐segmenting but not in segmenting children. Spelling regularity did not affect ease of learning. Nouns were easier to learn than function words. In the second study, although phonological awareness and sound‐to‐letter mapping knowledge still exerted a significant influence, all novice five‐year‐olds were able to learn words more easily if these were taught out‐of‐context singly on flashcards. Results support the view that mental representations of printed words are more easily formed by beginners who are able to match at least some of the phonological segments detected in the spoken word to letters in the printed word.     

How do beginners learn to read irregular words as sight words?

Learning irregular words involves mental marking of irregular letters in the spelling, a process not fully understood. In a within‐subjects experiment, we manipulated the type of scaffolding given to beginning readers to evoke mental marking. We pretested to sort 103 kindergarten and first‐grade participants into sequential decoders, who decode letter by letter, and hierarchical decoders, who recognise vowel patterns. In the control phase, children read irregular words in sentence contexts with minimal scaffolding. In the experimental phase, participants read additional irregular words in sentence contexts by ‘operating on the word’ to mark irregular letters. Results indicated that the experimental condition induced better untimed word reading, but it did not improve spelling or reading in a flash presentation. Hierarchical decoders were significantly more successful than sequential decoders in untimed word reading, spelling and reading in the flash presentation. These results suggest that learning hierarchical decoding predisposes readers to learn irregular words.     

Moving between literacy theory and practice with preservice teachers: Listening to their voices

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate two research questions: What literacy learning did preservice teachers experience through a Penpal Project embedded in an early literacy course? What sense did preservice teachers make of the Penpal Project?—with an overarching focus on bridging literacy theory with practice.

Data were gathered in a university classroom setting, situated in a small Western town, over a period of one school semester. Data methods and sources included videotaped participant observation during weekly penpal letter‐sharing, preservice teachers’ reflection journals, focus group interviews, and preservice teachers’ Penpal Project Summaries.

Patterns emerged from the data and were conceptualized under three broad categories: discourse, discovery and dilemmas. In the discourse category, cultivating relationships and learning through collaboration emerged as themes. Discoveries included meaning‐ and skill‐centered interpretations and professional learning. With regard to dilemmas, preservice teachers reported feelings of inadequacy in decoding their penpals’ letters, in finding topics to pique their penpals’ interests, and in making logical speculations.

Conclusions highlighted the importance of including field experiences in teacher education courses in order for preservice teachers to integrate early literacy theory and practice. A focus on forming relationships, working in collaboration with others, and acknowledging and solving challenges revealed added benefits for the preservice teachers, including a deeper understanding of young students’ early literacy development.     

Writing and becoming [a teacher]: Teacher candidates’ literacy narratives over four years

This paper explores narrative inquiry practices in pre-service teacher education program. Written dialogue by teacher candidates provided deep and long term reflection during a 5-year initial teacher education program. This 4-year longitudinal study with 30 teacher candidate participants considers participants’ knowledge formation in becoming teachers, through writing and sharing of letters (with peers) of personal lived educational experiences, and personal stories of theory related to learning, teaching, and teaching practice over a significant period of time. The study discusses letter writing as a narrative inquiry practice in teacher education programs and implications of pre-service letter writing over a significant amount of time.     

Teacher candidates’ mastery of phoneme-grapheme correspondence: massed versus distributed practice in teacher education

Matching phonemes (speech sounds) to graphemes (letters and letter combinations) is an important aspect of decoding (translating print to speech) and encoding (translating speech to print). Yet, many teacher candidates do not receive explicit training in phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Difficulty with accurate phoneme production and/or lack of understanding of sound-symbol correspondence can make it challenging for teachers to (a) identify student errors on common assessments and (b) serve as a model for students when teaching beginning reading or providing remedial reading instruction. For students with dyslexia, lack of teacher proficiency in this area is particularly problematic. This study examined differences between two learning conditions (massed and distributed practice) on teacher candidates’ development of phoneme-grapheme correspondence knowledge and skills. An experimental, pretest-posttest-delayed test design was employed with teacher candidates (n?=?52) to compare a massed practice condition (one, 60-min session) to a distributed practice condition (four, 15-min sessions distributed over 4 weeks) for learning phonemes associated with letters and letter combinations. Participants in the distributed practice condition significantly outperformed participants in the massed practice condition on their ability to correctly produce phonemes associated with different letters and letter combinations. Implications for teacher preparation are discussed.     

From special tasks to extensive roles: the changing face of special needs teachers in Finnish vocational further education

Following the development of inclusive education in vocational education and training (VET), the discussion about the prevention of marginalisation and dropouts has increased. At the same time, the formal education system has strengthened the position of support services, such as special educational needs (SEN) teachers, social workers and counsellors. However, a confusion of roles in the work of SEN teachers seems evident. The changing work of SEN teachers has not been of great research interest in Finland. The focus has been mainly on SEN teachers at the secondary school level (Kivirauma and Kuorelahti, 2002; Ström, 1999). The work of vocational SEN teachers has been studied by Kaikkonen, 2010 and Hirvonen, 2006. SEN teachers comprise two groups in the field: one group supports vocational subjects and the other group supports general subjects. The aim of this study is to determine how SEN teachers of general subjects define the objectives of their work and how they organise pedagogical support. Ten SEN teachers in vocational colleges were interviewed. A qualitative analysis was performed. The main findings showed, on the one hand, an autonomous position and, on the other, a work model that can be described as a ‘traditional special needs education model’. However, the findings showed that the autonomous role was contradictory. SEN teachers did not emphasise the connection with the VET community or college‐based guidelines and directions. Moreover, although the consultative role exists, the findings showed that it is not a regular part of the work of SEN teachers.     

Effect of orthographic processes on letter position encoding

We investigate whether orthographic processes influence the identification and encoding of letter position within letter strings. To minimise word‐specific effects, we adopt a visual letter search task that requires participants to identify a cued letter target among a random five‐letter string. Using this paradigm, previous studies have shown that letter targets to the left are identified faster than those to the right of centre and letter targets in the initial, medial and final positions are identified faster than those in neighbouring positions. While the medial letter advantage is likely to arise from greater visual acuity at the point of fixation, the mechanisms responsible for the left‐to‐right, and exterior, letter advantage have yet to be determined. We show that: (i) search functions for most letters reflect the directional scanning process required for reading English orthography; (ii) search times are significantly faster for letter targets that appear in the most, compared with the least, frequent position in written words; and (iii) search times correlate significantly with positional letter frequency, especially in the initial and final positions. We propose that a combination of low‐level visual, and higher‐level orthographic, processes modulate the encoding of letter identities and position in written word recognition.     

“Each word shows how you love me”: The social literacy practice of children’s letter writing (1780–1860)

This article draws on hundreds of letters that formed German children’s correspondence with their parents, other relatives, teachers and friends, written mostly between the 1780s and 1850s. Through this study, we see the part literacy played in transformations of bourgeois childhood in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe. The article further investigates how children used letters as a means of learning sociability and building relationships within kinship networks. Historians of education have sometimes treated children’s writing as secondary to more authoritative records. Yet we miss something important about the history of literacy education if we disregard children’s writing or use it only superficially. This article considers the genre of children’s letter writing, exploring the conventions and typical subjects which contributed to the social purpose of correspondence. Letter writing is examined as a paedagogic exercise, including the preoccupation with the medium which filled children’s letters and evidence of instruction in letter writing. It demonstrates that letters fostered the participation of middle- and upper-class children in household affairs, kinship networks and cultural spheres connected through school friends and parents’ acquaintances from very young ages. Children’s correspondence documents a lifelong process in the making of class cultures and forging of social ties.     

Teachers’ Perceptions of the Use of Computer Assisted Language Learning to Develop Children’s Reading Skills in English as a Second Language in the United Arab Emirates

This study investigated ESL teachers’ perceptions regarding the use of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in teaching reading to children. A random sample of 145 teachers participated in the study by completing a survey developed by the researchers. To explore the situation in depth, 16 teachers were later interviewed. Results indicated that the main purpose of using CALL with children is to help them develop reading strategies and increase their motivation. The most common strategies teachers reported using were computers to: enhance children's reading skills, support children's reading, listen to stories read aloud, recognize letter/sound relationships, and identify letters and beginning sounds of words. Teachers reported that CALL has some benefits, such as providing opportunities for active interaction and differentiated instruction. The main barriers of using CALL are the lack of resources and suitable software and hardware. The study ended with recommendations for further research and instructional improvements.     

Visual constraints in written word recognition: evidence from the optimal viewing‐position effect

In this paper we review the literature on visual constraints in written word processing. We notice that not all letters are equally visible to the reader. The letter that is most visible is the letter that is fixated. The visibility of the other letters depends on the distance between the letters and the fixation location, whether the letters are outer or inner letters of the word, and whether the letters lie to the left or to the right of the fixation location. Because of these three factors, word recognition depends on the viewing position. In languages read from left to right, the optimal viewing position is situated between the beginning and the middle of the word. This optimal viewing position is the result of an interplay of four variables: the distance between the viewing position and the farthest letter, the fact that the word beginning is usually more informative than the word end, the fact that during reading words have been recognised a lot of times after fixation on this letter position and the fact that stimuli in the right visual field have direct access to the left cerebral hemisphere. For languages read from right to left, the first three variables pull the optimal viewing position towards the right side of the word (which is the word beginning), but the fourth variable counteracts these forces to some extent. Therefore, the asymmetry of the optimum viewing‐position curve is less clear in Hebrew and Arabic than in French and Dutch.     

英汉字母发音对比

英汉对比研究对英语教学具有重要的指导意义。文章利用对比分析,从英汉字母及其发音、字母组合及其发音这两个大方面进行比较研究,旨在找出两个系统间的差异,从而帮助教师在语音教学中正确引导学生克服语音学习中的母语负迁移作用,并积极地利用母语语音促进英语语音的教学。