Learning about Spelling Sequences: The Role of Onsets and Rimes in Analogies in Reading

Abstract

Children's phonological awareness, especially their awareness of rhyme, is known to be importnat for later reading development. However, the exact nature of the connection between phonological skills and reading is not yet known. One possibility is that when children analyze written words in reading, they find it relatively easy to learn about spelling sequences within these words that reflect phonological categorizations such as rhyme. This hypothesis implies that learning to read words is not a purely visual process. For example, spelling sequences that reflect the intrasyllabic linguistic units of onset (initial consonants) and rime (vowel and final consonants), and thus are connected to rhyme, may be easier to learn about than other spelling sequences. In Experiment 1, children learned more about shared consonant blends at the beginnings of words (trim-trap), which constituted the onset, than at the ends of words (wink-tank), which broke up the rime. In contrast, Experiment 2 showed that when words shared a vowel as well as a consonant blend, more was learned about spelling sequences at the ends of words (wink-pink), which now reflected the rime, than at the beginnings of words (trim-trip), where the vowel extended the onset. So intrasyllabic phonological knowledge does seem to play a role in learning about spelling sequences in reading.