The importance of vowel diacritics for reading in Hebrew: What can be learned from readers with prelingual deafness?

This study investigates the importance of voweldiacritics for the reading of Hebrew inindividuals with different levels ofphonological control. A paradigm calling forwritten ordered-recall of 12 lists of 8consecutively displayed Hebrew nouns was usedas a test tool. Item presentation andbetween-item interval were computer-controlled.Half of the nouns on the lists were presentedwith vowel diacritics designating their vowels.The remaining nouns appeared with their voweldiacritics removed. Thirty-nine hearingstudents (mean grade 6.5) and twenty-seven students withprelingual deafness (mean grade 6.9)participated in the experiment. Analyses of thegroups' recall rate, recall-order accuracy, andintrusion error rate indicate that, overall,adding vowel diacritics had a facilitatingeffect on the participants' quantitative andqualitative STM performance. Fine-tunedpost-hoc examinations further suggest thatproviding vowel diacritics may be particularlyworthwhile for Hebrew readers with impoverishedreading skills. These findings are discussedwith regard to their implications for thereading of Hebrew.