Learning to spell words in Spanish: a comparative analysis / La escritura de palabras en castellano: un análisis comparativo

Abstract

This article examines the cognitive mechanisms involved in word spelling in Spanish, a consistent/shallow orthographic system, as opposed to an inconsistent/deep system. The article examines the two basic spelling mechanics according to the dual-route model — the phoneme-grapheme route and the orthographic route — as well as two additional mechanisms, one exploiting the sub-lexical orthographic regularities and the other morphological knowledge. Although there is insufficient evidence to allow definitive conclusions, it is suggested that the mechanisms involved in word spelling are qualitatively the same in all orthographic systems, whatever their degree of consistency-depth. The quantitative differences observed show that consistent systems such as Spanish are acquired more rapidly than less consistent systems.