Does a truly symmetrically transparent orthography exist? Spelling is more difficult than reading even in an orthography considered highly transparent for both reading and spelling

Abstract

Although we know that spelling develops more slowly than reading in asymmetrically transparent orthographies, such as Italian, we do not know whether spelling lags behind reading in orthographies considered symmetrically transparent for both spelling and reading. This is because reading and spelling skills are rarely tested on the same lexical items, which impedes their direct comparison. This study aimed to address this issue by comparing children’s reading and spelling accuracy on the same lexical items in Turkish, which is highly transparent for both reading and spelling. The study also examined an exceptional case, namely letter Ğ, which can cause phonemic ambiguity and potentially complicate spelling but not reading accuracy in Turkish. Through two experiments, children’s reading and spelling accuracy rates were tested on the same nonword and real word items at grade 1 (Experiment 1, N = 40, Mage = 80.93 months, SD = 2.79 months; Experiment 2, N = 39; Mage = 80.97 months, SD = 2.80 months). The consistent findings from nonwords and words (with Ğ or without Ğ) confirmed that spelling development lagged behind reading development in Turkish and that Ğ reduced spelling accuracy but had no effect on reading accuracy. These findings raise questions about the notion of symmetrical transparency: spelling is less transparent and cognitively more demanding than reading even in orthographies considered highly transparent for both reading and spelling. The case of Ğ highlights that even the most transparent orthographies may have exceptional cases that can differentially affect reading and spelling accuracy and therefore the developmental trajectories of reading and spelling skills. Clearly, spelling words as they are heard may not always result in accurate spellings even in Turkish and children should be explicitly taught about the phonemic ambiguity that Ğ may cause.