Abstract
This study explores how children learn the meaning (semantics) and spelling patterns (orthography) of novel words encountered in story context. English-speaking children (N = 88) aged 7 to 8 years read 8 stories and each story contained 1 novel word repeated 4 times. Semantic cues were provided by the story context such that children could infer the meaning of the word (specific context) or the category that the word belonged to (general context). Following story reading, posttests indicated that children showed reliable semantic and orthographic learning. Decoding was the strongest predictor of orthographic learning, indicating that self-teaching via phonological recoding was important for this aspect of word learning. In contrast, oral vocabulary emerged as the strongest predictor of semantic learning.
Highlights
This study explores how children learn the meaning and spelling patterns of novel words encountered in story context
Using an adaptation of the self-teaching paradigm (Share, 1999), we investigated the predictors of orthographic and semantic learning in a large group of children aged 7 to 8 years
Mean scores were close to population norms on most measures, with scores on measures of oral vocabulary and reading comprehension falling in the lower average range
Summary
This exposure phase, nonwords were read with a high degree of accuracy at the first (M = .67, SD = .35), second (M = .93, SD = .17), third (M = .87, SD = .23), and fourth (M = .94, SD = .14) attempt, and overall (M = .85, SD = .20). This indicates that children read a large proportion of the nonwords correctly and were learning orthography-phonology mappings online, with performance increasing to near ceiling levels by the fourth attempt.
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